I still cannot believe this story, and how fortunate I was to get to hear from this amazing woman. I went to a fireside (think of a Ted Talk, Mormon style) the other night and listened in rapt amazement for approximately 1.5 hours while this story feel from her lips. It was astonishing. Her name is Kitty de Ruyter-Bons and she was a Dutch citizen born in Indonesia. She was about 8 when her family was put on house arrest and soon thereafter put in a Japanese Concentration Camp. She's written a book about it, if you read only one book for leisure in the next year, please read this. It will blow your mind with story after story of courage, integrity, and her incredible mother. I was deeply moved and have since read her book. Here's another interview she did, and here is her book below.
interview:
http://www.mormonchannel.org/conversations/12
book:
http://www.amazon.com/As-I-Have-Loved-You/dp/1591560659
Tuesday, April 09, 2013
Talk on Domestic Abuse
Tonight we had a speaker come to our church and talk to us about domestic violence. (We had a good turnout too, and it was an honor to be there.) She's a licensed therapist and the director of a local abuse center, or I should say the local abuse shelter. There is only one entity, at least in the Salt Lake City Valley, or from some refinery north down to 'point of the mountain'. It's a non-profit, and they only have 2 homes. Of those two homes, only 200 beds to accomodate about 276 people. Most of which are children. Pause and consider that for a moment!
She gave us some disturbing statistics. 1 in 4 women in Utah are abused, whether emotionally, physically or sexually. 1 in 9 men are as well. Also, they turn away about 70 people a week or a month (I can't remember which but does it matter?) I found that shocking.
My biggest takeaway from this experience was when she asked us WHY we thought people endured the abuse. She pointed out that often times we think things like 'Oh, they must like it', or any number of reasons that are crap. She then asked for a volunteer. A sweet girl I know came forward goodnaturedly. She asked her to hold this bottle in her hand. As she went to hand it to her, and as the girl reached out to take it, she pulled back right at the last second. She asked her again, in a slightly different, more pleading way. The girl reached out again, and again, she pulled back at the last second. She did this several MORE times before stopping, with the same outcomes. And that was our answer. Why did the girl keep responding to her request, keep reaching out her hand?
She gave us some disturbing statistics. 1 in 4 women in Utah are abused, whether emotionally, physically or sexually. 1 in 9 men are as well. Also, they turn away about 70 people a week or a month (I can't remember which but does it matter?) I found that shocking.
My biggest takeaway from this experience was when she asked us WHY we thought people endured the abuse. She pointed out that often times we think things like 'Oh, they must like it', or any number of reasons that are crap. She then asked for a volunteer. A sweet girl I know came forward goodnaturedly. She asked her to hold this bottle in her hand. As she went to hand it to her, and as the girl reached out to take it, she pulled back right at the last second. She asked her again, in a slightly different, more pleading way. The girl reached out again, and again, she pulled back at the last second. She did this several MORE times before stopping, with the same outcomes. And that was our answer. Why did the girl keep responding to her request, keep reaching out her hand?
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