By Sagita Paramalingam | Project Officer
Ariel had been married for four years. It was a second marriage for the couple. It was Ariel’s first abusive relationship and she was the breadwinner of the family. Throughout the marriage, Ariel has been subjected to physical and psychological abuse. Her husband had also included her in a series of crimes that he had committed as an accomplice and used those incidents to threaten her safety whenever she attempted to leave the abusive household. Her 3 years old daughter witnessed most of the incidents. She was hospitalized twice due to the abuse and has lodged several cover reports. She has left home multiple times but always returned due to threats. She had previously sought her friends and family’s assistance to host her but they were fed up with her situation because she did not wish to take any action against her husband. Her employer came to know about her distressed predicament and connected Ariel toWAO’s Hotline number. After speaking to a social worker, Ariel decided to come to WAO with her daughter for temporary shelter and protection from her perpetrator.
Ariel was having difficulty managing her child at first, as the child has witnessed abuse, she was acting out by hitting Ariel. After discussing with her WAO social worker and counselor, Ariel agreed to put her child through Play Therapy. A few sessions later, Ariel was able to see that there’s a reduction of aggression in her child and the relationship between them was much closer. Ariel herself committed to counseling sessions and found that through the psychosocial assistance, she was able to find healthy coping strategies to not only practice positive parenting, but also practice self care for herself. Through WAO’s case management support, Ariel was able to initiate divorce with her husband as well as attend variosu empowerment and rehabilitative activities and program which gave her the courage to start out a new life on her own
With the availability of day-care service at WAO Child Care Center and WAO's back-to-work funds to assist Ariel to kick-start her life, she was able to go back to workforce and secure a place of her own where she could live independently, while having her child cared for and be in a safe and protective environment when he needed to go out to work.
* Names have been changed to protect the confidentiality of our survivors*
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