STORIES MOTHERS

PTSD is a horribly debilitating condition. Following a traumatic event, sufferers of PTSD are left with a worldview which has been altered profoundly and which often leaves them deeply afraid and anxious, the future may look bleak as they struggle to liberate themselves from the images of the trauma they have endured. This can be particularly hard for women with ‘birth trauma’ because they often suffer these problems at a time when everyone expects them to be happy and positive.  As a result, they often end up feeling guilty and this lowers self-esteem.

The work Help Women and Children is doing in Britain involves showing women the first steps to recovery from their birth trauma by listening to their concerns, organizing workshops, and by creating national and international awareness amongst other things.  The amazing work in the community of Los Huertos in the district of Chorrillos, in the south of Lima, is even bigger. The charity has not only successfully removed families from the vicious circle of poverty but is also dealing with different traumas by being a listening ear, counselling and setting up small businesses for them.

If you would like to get involved as a Partner by giving £2.99 per month, want to sponsor a child in Peru, buy their products, or want to raise money for this charity by doing the Inca trail or going as a volunteer, please send an e-mail to info@helpwomenandchildren.com

STORIES IN THE UK	STORIES IN PERU
Story 1 - I felt so ugly within me, full of anger and grief	Story 1 - when I turned 10 years of age…he raped me
Story 2 - I feel like suicide is my only option	Story 2 - My husband snatched my 9-year old son
Story 3 - I can't ring any of the help lines because I just cry so much I can't talk	Story 3 - My mother went to rescue me after more than 2 years… now I am 11 years of age
Story 4 -  My c-section appears to have been totally unavoidable. My baby was experiencing no distress. I think my doctor just got tired of waiting	Story 4 -  I was so poor that my mother had to give me away to a lady called Alicia
Story 5  - She stuck her fingers into my sore, stitched vagina roughly without asking and I just  started sobbing uncontrollably	Story 5  - I suffered trauma after the birth of my third child

Story 4 :I was so poor that my mother had to give me away to a lady called Alicia I was only 6 years of age when I remember living with my mother and father in a county in the Andes called Huancavelica in a very small village called Colcabamba, my father died just after I turned 6, we were 6 brothers and sisters. After my father died we lived together for another year but my mother was very poor and the house and land where we lived didn´t belong to us so she decided to give 3 of her older children away and keep the three youngest. I was given to a lady called Alicia. I was approching 8 years of age when this lady took me far away from my village to another County also in the Andes of Peru. This lady had a grown up daughter and together with her they used to bit me up every day because I didn´t know how to sweep the floor, wash the dishes o wash their clothes. I was so sad and asked myself why they couldn´t understand that I was only a small girl. Every time I did something wrong they used to through me out of the house even when it was raining heavely or frizzing cold. The only thing I did in those occasions was to cry-not stop. I used to sleep on the floor, no bed. Almost every day I used to cry so much that I fell asleep crying.  When I could and wheather permitting I used to sleep on the grass outside the house because it was softer. One day an auntie came to see me because she had heard of the bad treatment I was enduring and took me to her house. I was just 10 years of age and I thought that I was going to be better with her but after a few weeks she gave me away to another women, her name was Eudoxia. This woman had 5 grown up children and she used to made me wash the dishes, clean the house, iron all their clothes, she insulted me and used to bit me up very badly if I made a mistake,  and on top of that, she refused to feed me some times. One day I didn´t wash the clothes properly because they were very tick and difficult to wash and she torced me by bitting me to drink the dirty water with detergent so, acording to her, I will not make again that mistake. That day I cried so much from the pain I suffered in my body and hands that I scaped. I was only 13 years of age. Since that small age I worked in anything I could find and carry on studying at school. When I turned 16 I meet the father of my children and I thought that all my suffering had finished but I was very wrong. I was not even 19 years of age when I found myself pregnant with my first child. During many years with this man my life was charactirezed by physical abuse, insults, hunger and misery. After giving birth to 6 children from this man he took me to the Lima, the capital of Peru and it was there that I found out that he was all along married and had already children. I was devasteted by this news. But even though I was endured this trial of humilation and abused.  I took possession of a land in Chorrillos and managed to pay for it by working extremely hard even when all my children were very small. The father of my children instead of helping me, he left me in the most absolut missery. When a representative of Help Women and Children came to visit me I was so desperate and sad. Mrs Noemi talked to me, listen my story and my broken heart and then she empathasied with me in a very special way, she made feel that I had hope, that it was now that I could touch happiness. They helped me with the schools materials to two of my daughters, I couldn´t believe it! I never believe that there were people and organizations like Help Women and Children that could listen to ones problems, that people could be so patient, that they could guide us……I felt so gratful for all the love that they have given me. After many months in counselling with Mrs Noemi, I felt valued, with new strength to live, to start a new business.  They even helped me giving me a small capital to buy some shampoos, so with the sales I could incresed my capital and I managed to buy more shampoos. With that small incresed capital I managed to buy some drinks and some snacks to sell at the entrance of my house. Now I serve coffee and sándwiches in the mornings but my dream is to increase it to serve lunch and dinners. I want to thank Help Women and Children for the help they provided me and I want to carry on prospering. I also hope that this organization can increase to help other people like me, specially women and children who are suffering so much  right now and with their help these families can see that there is indeed hope for the future. TO UP

Buy this booklet which contains all the successful stories from mothers and raise money for this charity

Buy Real Healing After Caesarean A Book written by a PTSD survivor.

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