Building a Community of Survivors

On October 18th, SAFE’s Co-Executive Director, Natalia Otero, participated in a community workshop for survivors hosted by The Family Place and Dr. Claudia Campos, advocate and radio host on El Zol 99.1FM.  Attended by more than fifty Latina survivors of domestic violence, many of whom were former SAFE clients, the workshop focused on integrating this work into our daily lives as women in the community. She challenged each person there to take personal responsibility for this issue in our communities, in our families and among our friends.  One survivors, a young woman from El Salvador, spoke about her experience after she left her abusive relationship.  The father of her child attempted to have her deported after she reported the abuse, then tried to have her evicted from her home, and attempted to get her family in trouble with the authorities for helping her.   Once they got to Court, he also both threatened to take the child away from her forever and denied paternity at the same time.  Service providers explained the services available to victims including SAFE’s ACCION Line (1-866-962-5048) which provides immediate crisis intervention in Spanish 24-hours a day, 7 days a week to victims.  Representatives from Mil Mujeres and Women Empowered Against Violence (WEAVE) were also on hand to talk about legal representation and counseling services available.  Dr. Campos also encouraged men to join the movement to encourage male victims to come forward and to hold each other accountable for those among them who perpetrate violence against their partners.