SoulTalk in Hong Kong Comes to the Aid of Women in Emotional / Relationship Crisis!!
Thousands of women each year are falling through the cracks in the system!
Can you imagine for one minute that your life could be turned upside down in a split second! Here’s a woman that has just been told that by her husband of 15 years he wants her out of the house within the next few days because he has found someone else. He also shouts out all kinds of abuse to scare her into not seeking help or making her feel that she will lose her children because she won’t have any money to live on. Her name is Ming Lee. She has been a stay at home Mom looking after their two children aged 10 and 12 all this time and has no money of her own or set skills in the workforce. The despair that immediately sets in is the fear of how can she survive. How can she keep her children? Who can she turn to for help? How can she tell her family or friends? What will they think? What does she do first? Will the courts take my children away from me? How can this be happening to me? The confusion of such a massive crisis overpowers any possibility for her to think straight, let alone have the knowledge of what she is entitled to according to the law. Feeling alone, insecure, unloved and isolated creates complete loss of self-confidence and self-worth. Obviously in this case, Ming Lee was in a marriage that was emotionally abusive and she was accepting this as just being normal. Obviously also in this case, she did not consider her personal financial status during her years of marriage as she completely trusted in her husband for all these means. This is the way of thinking that alot of women are brought up to think. How did Ming Lee move from feeling like her world had just come crashing down on her and her children to seeking help and learning what she could do about this traumatic crisis?
She first tried calling a few different hotline numbers that she has heard of but felt she was getting no where in regards to personal assistance and immediate solutions for her crisis situation. There wasn’t even a temporary refuge for her to go to. Ming Lee said that she found one for physically abused women and for the elderly and sick, but nothing for her situation. Even the priest of her Church said he wished there was a loving home he could recommend as he has women every day and night asking him for shelter.
Ming Lee spoke to one friend who had recently heard of a charity called SoulTalk that works professionally and personally with women in relationship crisis. She called the Hotline and spoke with a relationship counselor immediately. She was amazed to have someone on the phone straight away and someone that she really felt understood what she was going through and could give her immediate proactive solutions. This gave her the confidence and relief she so desperately needed to hear. She said that after that phone call she actually had things she needed to do straight away. Within the first 24 hours, she had been accompanied to a lawyer’s office to receive free legal advice. The she was accompanied to legal aid where she found out how she could get financial assistance in her legal hearing. The biggest problem was finding a temporary shelter to live in with her children immediately.
Ming Lee is now well on her way to regaining her life again that was almost taken from her overnight. She is sharing her story here because she feels that SoulTalk was the only place of comfort and solutions that was out there in the society for her at her immediate disposal. They held my hand the whole way and for that I am extremely grateful!
SoulTalk is a registered Charity formed for women in relationship crisis that do not fit into the normal scheme of what our society has available. These women need our help and need it now. Ming Lee is just one case out of 50 SoulTalk handles at one time that are in similar situations. Emotional crisis is just as important as physical crisis and needs immediate attention and relief also There is a solution here and again SoulTalk has one to share with it’s local community here in Hong Kong.
According to the statistics compiled by the Social Welfare Society there are over 1,800 women on waiting lists to be able to use either a temporary or long term shelter. Harmony House alone had to refuse 300 women last year. What are these women doing in the meantime? What about the one’s with children?
SoulTalk’s Loving Home! SoulTalk has just been donated a five bedroom home from a local family here in HK. We need to have a new Board and Volunteers to assist with this vital project and have it up and running in the next few months. Our community desperately needs your expert help. These women and children that fall through the cracks will no longer have any cracks to fall through!!
SoulTalk’s Loving Home will be their temporary loving residence that will personally take them from tragedy to triumph………. by the hand!
To contact SoulTalk and offer funding. your expertise or your time,call 25256644.