Kapitel 142: Chapter 142

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of the annual charity polo match and ball, I thank each and every one of you for the time and effort you have all put into this evening to raise money for such noble causes. One of those causes being the New Hope Foundation, a charity incredibly important to me. It has become an international success in it's assisting women of all nationalities with becoming independent of abuse and trafficking and allowing them the ability to achieve a better life for themselves and for their children by providing housing, education, counseling and grant money to help them find strength to live on their own. A little over a year ago, I heard a woman speak on this matter and it touched my heart in a way nothing else has, which made me even more intent on making this charity a priority. She chose to speak of her personal struggles with abuse at an event we held in the US with several companies there. She bravely stood on stage without and preparation and said, I'll never forget it, "One of the basic human rights an abuser takes away from you is the right to be angry with him. No matter how badly he treats you, he believes that your voice shouldn't rise and your blood shouldn't boil. The privilege of rage is reserved for him alone. When your anger does jump out of you—as will happen to any abused woman from time to time—he is likely to try to jam it back down your throat as quickly as he can. Then he uses your anger against you to prove what an irrational person you are. And you are so torn down inside, you believe it. Abuse can make you feel straitjacketed. It can make you feel small and scared and unworthy of love, both giving and receiving. You may develop physical or emotional reactions to swallowing your anger, your pride, such as depression, nightmares, emotional numbing, or eating and sleeping problems, which the abuser may use as an excuse to belittle you further or make you feel crazy. And you have to work so hard to find any value in yourself whatsoever, let alone enough to crawl out of the ashes left of the life you thought you had, to finally break free and stand on your own. This charity could help so many women become the Phoenix they were always meant to be by giving them a much needed light at the end of a very dark tunnel. I know. I was one of those women for years and I saw my mother be one as well. If I or many others like myself would have had access to something like this, we could have saved so much heartbreak and fear and damage we now carry for the rest of our lives."