UGANDA
LEADER: Esther B.
The ministry running Her Journey in Uganda is called Ourganda. As noted with other areas in Africa, it is very difficult to just run recovery groups, as abuse is widely accepted and expected within families. This organization has combined Her Journey lessons with medical examinations and services as they travel from village to village. Extreme poverty also encourages domestic violence.
During 2023 (up until November), the team visited 9 villages. 226 ladies took all 15 lessons of Her Journey and 226 took at least one (or more) lessons.
Through Her Journey, Juliet came to know her rights as woman in a home. Before she had started attending classes, she didn’t know that she had been abused by her husband in different aspects for 7 years. One time, she decided to report him to the authorities. He was jailed for 6 months for battering his wife and son whenever he used drugs. He then chose to trade violence for kindness with his family members and his neighbors and worked on himself to make change.
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KENYA
CEO: Ann K.
In 2023, ARMS Kenya served 39 women who took at total of 34 Her Journey classes.
In Kenya, economic empowerment for women in abuse is very important as they are often dependent on their abusers for financial abuse. So, Her Jouney is often combined with sewing, baking and matmaking classes.
Annabelle had started to plan her way out of abuse. After two years, she left, and a lady in the church told her about ARMS Kenya and the Her Journey classes.
“I remember doing the I Choose Joy class [Shadows of Death], and I could not believe that choosing to live and choosing my joy was not being selfish or meant that I didn’t love others enough. I just cried to know that I am valuable and that it was not my fault that he chose to be abusive. Me being young was not a reason for him abusing and controlling me. ARMS class helped me breathe again after so many years of resentment. Now I can show my daughter that what we went through was not our fault, and she can never feel bad for loving herself ever.”
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GHANA
LEADER: Doris Asante
Doris met us at a large pregnancy conference, and we drew her name to give her free DVAT (faith-based Domestic Violence Advocacy) training so that she could start teaching Her Journey. She introduced the course material to Ghana, a country in West Africa, and started lessons on July 2, 2023.
What attracted her to the program was the curriculum’s focus on the gospel and aiding victims and survivors to find their identities in Christ. The best part is that the program is free and many of the attendees would never have heard these truths had ARMS charged them for these classes.
Doris says, “We had an average of 15 women attending our sessions every week. Many started the class overwhelmed with feelings of anger and resentment. However, by the end of the lessons they were equipped with information on the 8 forms of abuse and were excited with the tools they received to set and maintain boundaries and create healthy relationships.”
Ghana served a total of 30 ladies who took 15 classes.
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