YMCA Toronto will be hosting "Week without Violence" next week to raise the awareness of family violence against women.
The number of cases that women in Canada being abused by their spouses is eight times higher than that of men, the Chinese spokeswoman for "Week without Violence" Mrs. Chan Lam Wei Yi told World Journal, a Chinese newspaper in the United States. In addition, there are 30 percent of those who are married have experienced physical or sexual abuses by their spouse.
Many of these abuse cases actually happened in Chinese family. However, as many Chinese tend to avoid exposing the problems in their families to others, most of the Chinese victims have never seek for help or counseling.
Chan highlighted the ramification of family violence. It does not only affect the women, but it also hurts the second generations psychologically. Experts say many children can never forget the violent scenes in their homes and that even influence their behaviors in the rest of their lives. Therefore, parents should never overlook the issue of family violence in order to ensure the second generations can grow up healthily.
YWCA Toronto is the city's only multi-service organization by, for and about women and girls. It has been serving women of all faiths, sexual orientations, races, cultural affiliations and creeds for the past 130 years, supporting women and girls who want to make change.
"Week without Violence" in Toronto is just part of this nationwide initiative launched by YMCA Canada since 1995. This year, it will start on Feb. 11 or Feb. 12. It will be a week of activities, and events with authors, musicians, dancers, artists, teachers, and students, across the city each one taking a stand against all the violence in communities.
Official statistics from the U.S. Department of State shows that the percentage of Asian women being physically abused is five times higher than that of other ethnicities in North America. Within the Chinese communities, 24 percent women are injured after being mistreated by their spouses. Many Chinese Christian ministries have started reaching out to these women in the recent years.
