{"id":20744,"date":"2019-09-17T16:53:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-17T20:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/blog\/overcoming-a-painful-past-and-help-others\/"},"modified":"2021-03-19T15:18:17","modified_gmt":"2021-03-19T19:18:17","slug":"overcoming-a-painful-past-and-help-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/blog\/overcoming-a-painful-past-and-help-others\/","title":{"rendered":"Overcoming a painful past and help others"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cIn my culture it remains taboo to ask for help, because it\u2019s seen as a personal failure.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

When Atiya experienced domestic violence, she had to overcome cultural barriers to seek help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a challenge to navigate the system as a victim. There are several barriers women in the South Asian community face: the lack of information, the lack of awareness that help is out there and understanding that it is okay to reach out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m currently separated from my husband and in the process of getting a divorce, but when I was experiencing domestic violence, my biggest challenge was not getting immediate community support. It was so difficult to escape the violence I was experiencing\u2014and that my two children were witnessing\u2014because I felt like I had no one to turn to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our culture, the issue of domestic violence is very personal. It is seen as a failure on the part of a family and is shrouded deeply in the stigma of shame. It remains taboo for us to ask for help, because it\u2019s seen as a personal failure. We\u2019re not encouraged to step out of the boundaries that have been created by our culture. But the key to fighting these cultural stigmas and barriers is awareness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have been working with a Centraide-supported agency for five years. It provides a safe space for these women to come and reach out for help. We work in a community that\u2019s very ethnically diverse. The majority of people there are first-generation immigrants, so they\u2019re still in the settling phase. We use a very strong cultural lens in the work that we do, because we understand where these women are coming from and some of the barriers they face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We encourage them to seek help and we give reassurance. Reassuring survivors is one of the most important parts of our work: Domestic violence is not their fault. It can happen to anyone. It can happen in any culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having navigated the system as someone who was a victim, it\u2019s been a very fulfilling experience for me to volunteer in this field. Now, I\u2019m able to give my voice to those that might not be as confident to reach out for help. There is life after leaving a marriage. You will thrive and you will survive. And it\u2019s okay to reach out for help.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Atiya <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pour une victime, c\u2019est tr\u00e8s difficile de s\u2019y retrouver au sein du syst\u00e8me. Les femmes de la communaut\u00e9…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":5958,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"577,924,572,5939,5922,920","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[674],"tags":[],"content-type":[],"sector":[],"class_list":["post-20744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-inclusion"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-06 14:58:04","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20744"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20748,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20744\/revisions\/20748"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20744"},{"taxonomy":"content-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-type?post=20744"},{"taxonomy":"sector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sector?post=20744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}