About Me
My name is Melanie Duhan; I was raised in the beautiful town of Terrace, BC. I am a mother of 3 wonderful, caring, strong, young women, and I am blessed with 5 grandchildren who bring laughter and joy to my life. I encourage you to watch the video I made, as you’ll get to know more about my cause… About IDM
Every minute a woman or child is being sexually abused.
Every week 2 women are murdered by their spouse or former spouse in Canada.My name is Melanie, and I am here to ask other survivors of childhood abuse and neglect, to heal themselves. This is an extremely real issue that is escalating in our country and around the world.
Me telling you to heal yourself is not a great motivator. Who Am I?
Well I am a survivor of an extremely traumatic childhood. Now 47, it has just been the last 3 years of my life, which I have really understood that what I was doing to myself and others was a direct result of a deep belief that I DO NOT MATTER.
I have a story, we all do. I don’t want it to be my story anymore, enough already. Why do we keep doing unthinkable acts of violence to our children? Why do we look away? Our babies are being raped, they are being beat. We neglect our children, like they are worthless. I could go on and on about what is happening and I think that is what needs to happen. We look away, we whisper I think she’s being beat; our think to ourselves, there is something going on. But we say nothing do nothing!! Why? Because we think children are not worthy. Why else would all this and more keep happening to our children?
When we grow up after years of abuse either against us, or we watched in silent horror as our mothers are being savagely beat. This has such a devastating effect on the child, more than you could possible know. It affects everything and everyone, if they haven’t been murdered or taken their own life. These children will grow up and continue the abuse done to them, and the cycle repeats itself. If they manage not to repeat the cycle of abuse, other deep emotional issues will torment the adults for the rest of their lives. I am not making this issue bigger than it is; there are many studies on this subject. A lot of money spent on what happens to a child when they grow up after years of abuse. We have all the information, many web pages on this matter. Government studies, and people like myself trying to speak out on this extremely important social issue. What is happening? Well family violence is accelerating not decreasing.
I am asking for us, you to stop looking away. We all need to face this ugly truth, and we are responsible for our children.
Please, we need to give a child who is suffering a voice now! Together we can do this, we are not stupid people. We can figure this out, we have to change the way we treat each other. When you look away from a child being abused, you are looking away from yourself and your own children.
Let us do this together, we can make a difference.