Syracuse, N.Y. -- Marissa Saunders was screaming inside her house for help, but no one heard her.
So she ran outside, barefoot and pregnant, with a child in tow, and knocked on every door, she said.
No one answered until the last door on her block. That neighbor answered. She was the person who helped Saunders save herself.
“She sat with me. And went to the hospital with me,” Saunders said, remembering what happened two decades ago. “What was important was that someone stood up, stood there for me.”
Now, Saunders is that someone, along with Emad Rahim. The two are the faces of Vera House’s White Ribbon Campaign this year. Saunders is the first woman co-chair of the campaign.
“It brings the voice of a woman to this conversation,” said Saunders, who is also the vice-president of Vera House’s board of directors. “As a woman, it’s always been that I have not been believed. It gives voices where our voices aren’t being listened to and believed.”
Rahim, too, is a victim of domestic violence. He said he and his mother were abused and in their case, too, a neighbor was the one to help.
Rahim, whose family came to the U.S. after facing genocide in Cambodia, said that domestic violence is not openly discussed in the refugee community. He’s been working to open that conversation, he said.
Unlike past years, when the White Ribbon kick-off has started with a breakfast of who’s who and then filled the streets with marchers, this event will be virtual.
But that has made it more accessible to people who may not have been able to make it in person, she said.
And she said some men she works with in Africa, through Nurturing Individuals Abilities Ministries Worldwide, will be able to attend and hear a conversation that is even more taboo in their culture than it is here.
“It’s creating more opportunities for more awareness, more engagement,” Saunders said. “More empowerment.”
Marnie Eisenstadt writes about people, public affairs and the Syracuse City School District. Contact her anytime email | Twitter| cell 315-470-2246.