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Zonta Club of Northampton Area:
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Zonta Club of Northampton Area:
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Abuse is when someone causes, attempts to cause or threatens to cause you physical, emotional or sexual harm. It may include: slapping; punching; kicking; shoving; rape; harassment; intimidation; throwing things; threatening you or someone you care about; lying; put-downs; ridicule; humiliation; isolating you from family or friends; yelling; checking up on you; pressuring you into unwanted sexual contact; or not respecting your feelings, needs, opinions or rights. If you need help getting out of an abusive relationship, or if you just want to talk, call your local battered women's center. You can find the number in the phone book.
No one has the right to make you live in fear.
In October 1999, Yoko invited 23 Japanese social workers to western Massachusetts to see how domestic violence is treated in this country. At present, domestic violence is not recognized as a crime in Japan. There are no government or private support systems for victims, and no programs for abuser rehabilitation.
As part of that tour, our club hosted an Inter-City dinner for these visitors on October 25 at the Willits-Hallowell Center at Mt.Holyoke College. Nearly 60 people attended, including Zonta members from the Northampton, Springfield, Westfield and Quaboag Valley Clubs. We were fortunate also to have with us Past International President Josie Cooke of Los Angeles, who is now the International Chair of ZISVAW, the Zonta International Strategies to Eradicate Violence Against Women and Children
Josie led us in reading the Zonta Blessing in English, and Yoko led the visitors in reading a Japanese translation of the same. The program included remarks by Josie, Yoko, one of our own members who spoke of violence in her childhood home, and by Miho Sato, one of Yoko's guests who now lives in Boston, and who survived a brutal marriage. Miho is an opera singer and music has enabled her to break out of her trauma. She sang several pieces, explaining the stories behind them, to close the program.
The Japanese visitors were each given a purple ribbon with the Zonta Rose that our Club made for the District Conference and for this special evening. The pins came with a card that read: "Wear the purple ribbon and the Zonta rose as a symbol of your concern for victims of domestic violence around the world, and to support the efforts of Zonta International to eradicate violence against women and children."
Little did we know when we planned the event, that the next evening, several hundred people (including Yoko and her visitors) and all wearing purple ribbons, would be attending a candlelight vigil in remembrance of the first victim of domestic murder in Northampton since the horrible deaths of Sherry and Cedric seven years ago. As we drove to the dinner Monday evening, we heard the radio report that a local resident, Jean Hosmer, had been shot to death earlier that afternoon -- in broad daylight and in front of the police station -- by her estranged husband, shortly after having been granted an extension to a restraining order against him.
Clearly we have much work to do to.
Resources for Batterers / Men's Resources
Men's Resource Center (Amherst): 413-253-9587
Men Overcoming Violence (MOVE) (Amherst): Program 413-253-9588
Other Local Resources
Community Crisis Support Service: 413-772-0582 (Greenfield) or 413-586-6705
(Northampton)
Children's Aid and Family Services: 413-584-5690
The Children's Clinic: 413-587-3265
Other
National Domestic Violence Hotline: 800-799-7233
National Resource Center on Domestic Violence: 800-537-2238
Center for the Prevention of Sexual and Domestic Violence: 206-634-1903,
www.cpsdv.org,
e-mail: cpsdv@cpsdv.org
Zonta International Strategies to Eradicate Violence Against Women
and Children (ZISVAW): www.zisvaw.org
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