Taking the final step of leaving an abusive relationship is a decision only the victim can make and it's an empowering action to take.
ON WOMEN'S Day, we celebrate women’s courage and resilience. Yet we rarely ask why women must become so strong to survive the people who claim to love them.
My commitment to gender-based violence activism did not begin with theory. More than 40 years ago, I lost my sister to suicide. She was only 19 and in an abusive relationship. Her death has never left me. It taught me that abuse does not only bruise bodies. It can destroy self-worth, isolate a woman and strip away hope until she believes there is no way out.
Later, I experienced abuse.
I entered my first serious relationship at 19. The abuse began when I was 21. He strangled me until I lost consciousness. He promised he would stop, and I remained with him until I was 24, believing those promises.
