Giving a collective voice to the victims of domestic abuse, Journeys to Empowerment offers an oasis of understanding and an opportunity to recover and rebuild the lives of immigrant and refugee women who suffer from domestic violence. This is a place of sharing experiences and of bridging cultures, a place of belief in the power to change one’s circumstance.

Journeys to Empowerment focuses on first person accounts, real stories written by former victims that speak directly to women trapped in the cycle of domestic abuse, in their own languages, about their experiences and how they were able to find the courage to end their ‘victim’ status.

These are journals of sadness from young women enslaved and tormented in marriages arranged to pay off family debt…elderly women mistreated and forgotten by loved ones…about women whose dreams of love and happiness have been erased by violence, helplessness and despair…and the children who must witness their struggle and often come to harm themselves.

But they are also tales of bravery and courage, testaments to the power to end the cycle, stories of the women who find new hope and of those who are there to help…these are their Journeys to Empowerment.

Journeys to Empowerment is a project of the Vitanova Foundation funded by the

Ontario Victims Services Secretariat,
Ministry of the Attorney General.