Post by lace on Nov 4, 2006 23:25:48 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]Clothesline Project chronicles the toll of domestic violence[/glow]
By Joe Baker/Daily News staff
The Clothesline Project hangs at the Women's Resource Center on Touro Street in Newport. (David Hansen/Daily News staff)
Those driving down Touro Street last month were treated to a rainbow of colored shirts hanging from a porch clothesline. But the messages on those shirts belied their eye-catching appeal.
"Daddy, why did you hurt me?" read one light green shirt.
"She was 14. She was raped ... in her own home ... by a classmate. She is 20. She is afraid of the dark. She is afraid to be home alone. She is afraid to answer the door. She is afraid of strangers. She is afraid of men," reads an orange shirt.
The shirts were part of the Women's Resource Center Clothesline Project to commemorate Domestic Violence Awareness Month in October. Victims of domestic violence designed each shirt.
Designed to raise awareness of the problem, the project has had a side benefit of helping victims open up about their abuse, said Jerah Coviello, director of public relations for the Women's Resource Center of Newport and Bristol Counties.
"That's how you start the healing process," Coviello said.
Domestic violence is more prevalent than many people think. According to statistics generated by the U.S. Department of Justice, three women are murdered by husbands or boyfriends every day. And according to the American Psychological Association, about half of the men who abuse women also abuse their children.
In the last three months the local center has served 400 new clients, Coviello said.
Take the case of Azade Perin. She came to Rhode Island from Bolivia 10 years ago to attend Providence College. While there she fell in love and moved in with a man. Eventually they had two children.
One night she went out to a pharmacy. On her way home he drove up and told her to get into his car. She complied and he punched her several times. When they got home he dragged her by her hair up two flights of stairs into their apartment, where he beat her with an electrical cord.
All this because she didn't ask his permission to go to the store.
The beatings and abuse continued for the next six years. One day Perin was in the welfare office and a clerk set her up with an advocate from the local Women's Resource Center. She advised Perin how to escape the abuse. One night the beatings went too far and, once the man left, Perin called 911. He was arrested and she moved away.
Perin, 30, now works as a statewide advocate for the Women's Resource Center, advising women who are suffering the same abuse she did.
"I wanted to give a little back for what I've received from them," Perin said. "I just want to be part of the change."
Domestic violence extends beyond a man abusing a woman, Coviello said. It can be financial abuse of parents, emotional abuse, bullies in school or abuse in same-sex relationships.
"Domestic violence is closer than people think," Coviello said. "It happens to friends, grandparents, kids in school."
The center is especially trying to reach students, said Jessica Walsh, its director of youth violence prevention. Children who observe domestic violence are more likely to become abusers themselves, she said.
Walsh runs a Students Against Domestic Abuse (SADA) seminar at Rogers High School. Last year an athlete got into a fight and was ordered to attend the classes. By the year's end he had changed his attitude, Walsh said.
"We were having a debate about the effectiveness of SADA and he stood up and said, "I don't fight anymore and that's because of SADA,'" Walsh recalled. "Those are the moments that make you keep doing this."
Anyone wishing to report cases of domestic abuse should call the center at 846-5263
www.newportdailynews.com/articles/2006/11/04/news/news4.txt
By Joe Baker/Daily News staff
The Clothesline Project hangs at the Women's Resource Center on Touro Street in Newport. (David Hansen/Daily News staff)
Those driving down Touro Street last month were treated to a rainbow of colored shirts hanging from a porch clothesline. But the messages on those shirts belied their eye-catching appeal.
"Daddy, why did you hurt me?" read one light green shirt.
"She was 14. She was raped ... in her own home ... by a classmate. She is 20. She is afraid of the dark. She is afraid to be home alone. She is afraid to answer the door. She is afraid of strangers. She is afraid of men," reads an orange shirt.
The shirts were part of the Women's Resource Center Clothesline Project to commemorate Domestic Violence Awareness Month in October. Victims of domestic violence designed each shirt.
Designed to raise awareness of the problem, the project has had a side benefit of helping victims open up about their abuse, said Jerah Coviello, director of public relations for the Women's Resource Center of Newport and Bristol Counties.
"That's how you start the healing process," Coviello said.
Domestic violence is more prevalent than many people think. According to statistics generated by the U.S. Department of Justice, three women are murdered by husbands or boyfriends every day. And according to the American Psychological Association, about half of the men who abuse women also abuse their children.
In the last three months the local center has served 400 new clients, Coviello said.
Take the case of Azade Perin. She came to Rhode Island from Bolivia 10 years ago to attend Providence College. While there she fell in love and moved in with a man. Eventually they had two children.
One night she went out to a pharmacy. On her way home he drove up and told her to get into his car. She complied and he punched her several times. When they got home he dragged her by her hair up two flights of stairs into their apartment, where he beat her with an electrical cord.
All this because she didn't ask his permission to go to the store.
The beatings and abuse continued for the next six years. One day Perin was in the welfare office and a clerk set her up with an advocate from the local Women's Resource Center. She advised Perin how to escape the abuse. One night the beatings went too far and, once the man left, Perin called 911. He was arrested and she moved away.
Perin, 30, now works as a statewide advocate for the Women's Resource Center, advising women who are suffering the same abuse she did.
"I wanted to give a little back for what I've received from them," Perin said. "I just want to be part of the change."
Domestic violence extends beyond a man abusing a woman, Coviello said. It can be financial abuse of parents, emotional abuse, bullies in school or abuse in same-sex relationships.
"Domestic violence is closer than people think," Coviello said. "It happens to friends, grandparents, kids in school."
The center is especially trying to reach students, said Jessica Walsh, its director of youth violence prevention. Children who observe domestic violence are more likely to become abusers themselves, she said.
Walsh runs a Students Against Domestic Abuse (SADA) seminar at Rogers High School. Last year an athlete got into a fight and was ordered to attend the classes. By the year's end he had changed his attitude, Walsh said.
"We were having a debate about the effectiveness of SADA and he stood up and said, "I don't fight anymore and that's because of SADA,'" Walsh recalled. "Those are the moments that make you keep doing this."
Anyone wishing to report cases of domestic abuse should call the center at 846-5263
www.newportdailynews.com/articles/2006/11/04/news/news4.txt