“she realized that she had to do something to protect her children and herself”
Maria and John were a young couple who got married and started living together. They met in 2012 through a dating app. They were about the same age but had two completely different career paths. Maria used to be a software engineer but left her job after having kids. John was a carpenter, he spent most of his time at work so the couple had very little time to spend together. Everything was going well until the pandemic started.
They were about 40 years old and had two kids. John became a controlling husband and started drinking and showing signs of aggression towards the family. The situation escalated very quickly and just after a couple of weeks of insults and verbal abuse, he became physically aggressive and slapped Maria in front of the kids. She seeked help from John’s sister but she stated that he may have just had a bad day and things could get out of hand every once in a while,but she defends him claiming that he remains a good person. She doesn’t have support from her parents as they live very far away and are hard to contact. Not knowing where to seek help, she becomes afraid of him and does not attempt to search for help. She maintained silence and endured the violent acts of her husband until one day he hit one of the kids. That made her take action, she realized that she had to do something to protect her children and herself. She thinks of a variety of ways to escape. She attempts to go to the pharmacy and tries to signal the pharmacists that she needs help. They don’t notice what she was trying to say so she returns to desperation. One day she remembers about an e-commerce site that sells a specific item which notifies the site owners that the buyer might be in trouble. She orders a red bag which is the “warning” item. The site owners call her pretending to be notifying about an order (in case the husband hears). They ask her how bad the situation is and how they should approach the situation.
They notify the police to take careful action. After inspecting the area the police come to the house and arrest the man. He was taken to interrogation and an investigation started in the neighborhood. Emotionally she was sad because after being interrogated by police she thinks about her husband being in jail and the gravity of the situation that she lived in. But she was also happy because the situation was over and she could live freely with her kids. Maria was taken to a safe place by the police and is given financial support from the state which she uses to create an NGO against women violence.
She now has frequent seminars with people from all around the world to empower women that encounter this problem.
”You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them” -Maya Angelou
