But now they’re strutting their stuff on a runway, heads high and proud as peacocks. These beauties are donning the fashions of Flagstaff designer, Robert Golden Reninger.

The SEEDs women premiered in this fashion show to give back to a cause that benefited Naturopath’s International (NI) Humanitarian Convention and Fundraiser. Founded by Dr. Brandie Gowey, NMD.,  NI physicians and assistants provide monthly medical care free to the SEEDs residents who otherwise would not be able to afford healthcare.

Courtesy of PSD on Creative Commons

HearHer.Org is giving voice to women who were battered: the sufferers and survivors of domestic violence. Our authors have been beaten, abused, hushed and hidden. Now it’s their turn to speak out about the atrocities of emotional abuse, child abuse, sexual abuse; unconscionable abuses that affect one in four women.

This social media portal gives you a look into the lives of those of us who have survived some horrific circumstances with domestic abuse. Not by choice and not because we liked it when it happened. For many of us the silence, shame and fear kept us in check with the very messages we received from society. These messages often are taught in childhood and carried over into our adult lives.

“What happens behind closed doors is no one elses business.”

Who are we? We are your neighbors, your child, your sister, your mother, daughter, teacher, friend, attorney, doctor, and the list goes on. We can be anyone because domestic abuse in all of its forms does not discriminate.

HearHer.Org invites you on a virtual journey to walk in our shoes as we share our experience with domestic violence and child abuse. We want to share with you our strength, and our hope. If you suffer from domestic abuse or violence, are living in fear of someone or have in the past, you are not alone. No matter the reason you came to this site… you can make a difference. Help someone that reaches out to you, get involved in your community, or make a donation to change a life.

Welcome to our world.

MonaLou Callery, Executive Director of NATN

As a woman who once lived in a private war zone behind closed doors, known as domestic violence, I so often struggled with the reality of trying to figure what to do,  where to go and how to  survive if I ever did get out alive.

Fast forward the tape twenty five years later. I have worked in shelters, state agencies, court settings, and domestic violence agencies, and I’ve found that the screening of victims calling for help is becoming much more rigid and inflexible. Victims are being screened out and re-victimized.

We are forgetting the childhood trauma and the horrific abuse that all too often has led some of these victims of domestic violence down a road that would numb those memories by self medicating the mind and body through prescription pills, drugs and alcohol… whatever was available so the feelings could stayed buried far beneath the surface.

In 2001, I decided it was time to act on what I knew, what I had learned from all those programs. I decided to tap into all those wonderful experts – the survivors themselves and those I had met over the years – to open a program that would educate the professionals who come in contact with victims of domestic violence. We’re talking the difficult cases. The victims of abuse that ended up in prison, prostitutes, and the women struggling with alcohol and/or drug addiction.

I believed that if a woman had a safe home, a community of support, resources to help, and someone to believe in her when she didn’t believe in herself, that the chances of her feeling, knowing, and living safe in a society that once didn’t help her be safe would be realized.

She could blossom, grow and come to know that she mattered. The National Advocacy & Training Network opened its doors in 2001 to provide training across the country.  The Support, Education, Empowerment & Directions (SEEDs) opened the first home, the Marilyn House in 2003, and the Diane House in 2006, both named after the generosity of the homes key funders.

If you’re struggling to escape abuse, or have escaped and found difficulty navigating the system, please reach out to us, or the National Domestic Violence Hotline, at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233).

Today it dawned on me that had I not lived in the darkness of domestic violence, I might not be as grateful for the light I’ve found today.

Photo Credit: Samiva, Creative Commons

I had another one of those “WOW” moments. Today,  I realized that I’m learning to be o.k. in my own skin.

I went to a party on Sunday and was able to get into my bathing suit and go swimming with both men and women. I don’t have a problem being in my swimsuit around the girls, but this day was different, it was like an awakening.

My friend and I, Matthew, (I love him dearly), laid out in his pool and talked and laughed and laughed. That was a very special moment for me.

I am truly grateful for who I am today and for the true friends that I have been blessed with.

THIS IS AN AWESOME LIFE!

I am whole and no one can break me ever again. Share Her Story:

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