The London Abused Women’s Centre kicked off their seventh annual “Shine the Light on Woman Abuse” campaign this evening.
The tree in Victoria Park lit with purple lights to “Shine the Light on Woman Abuse” with Mary Meadows’ sign–one of the women being honoured for this year’s campaign.
A tree in Victoria Park that is strung in purple lights was lit up to symbolize courage, survival and the fight to end woman abuse. Megan Walker, the Executive Director at LAWC, says this month Londoners are encouraged to “wear purple and respond to women in need.”
There are two women being honoured for this year’s campaign, Paula Gallant, a school teacher and new mother who was murdered by her husband and Mary Meadows, a survivor of woman abuse.
Meadows met her husband when she was fourteen years old, her first love, whom she thought would never hurt her. She explains that the London Abused Women’s Centre helped her start a new life, “I got the courage to leave when I realized that my two children, who were boys, were using this as a role model on how to treat your significant other, and I couldn’t have that.”
There is a silver lining to Meadows’ story. The woman abuse survivor is happily married in a new relationship to her“best friend”. She is living her life free of violence with her sons in St. Thomas working as her own boss for her catering business.
“Shine the Light on Woman Abuse” will be taking place throughout November to help abused women find community agencies to free them from violence.
