Annual Shine The Light

By Md. Nuruzzaman

Woman abuse, domestic violence, public awareness.

The spotlight is on Hiatus House during November’s domestic violence awareness campaign.

Hiatus House Windsor held an annual Shine The Light event Nov.1 to encourage woman to raise their voice and fight against domestic violence.

Thom Rolfe, is executive director at Hiatus House. Since its opening in 1976, Hiatus House provides treatment for nearly 4,000 victims of domestic violence. The house runs a number of programs including crisis intervention programs, residential program for emergency needs, transitional and housing support programs and fresh start for women programs. The house also runs programs for children.

“ It symbolizes the courage, in terms of abused woman and being able to tell the story and to be able to survive the abuse and get on with their lives,” said Rolfe.

He said the idea behind the Shine the Light event is to create public awareness so that people will talk about domestic violence and abuse. Nov. 15 is Purple Day in Ontario.

”We have this beautiful purple tree to symbolize our fight against woman abuse in our communities,” said Karry Plaskitt, support service staff member at Hiatus House.

Plaskitt said they also sell scarves for fundraising. Last year they sold more than 2,000 scarves.

Debra Fowler, 52, is a victim of domestic violence, and now a public awareness advocate. She was physically assaulted, stalked and had her life threatened by her boyfriend. She took two years to recover from the trauma.

“This is the beginning of the momentum… domestic violence is creating some forward movement. It’s in the bills and legislations. We are trying to create change,” said Fowler. “We try to eradicate domestic violence and abuse and so we model to our children healthy relationships, healthy conflict resolution.”

Fowler also said domestic violence is a silent epidemic in society which sees the number of victims increase every year.

The month of November is dedicated to creating public awareness about domestic violence against woman. Rolfe and his team are going to be at the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa Nov.15 as part of the provincial Shine the Light campaign.