When I finally escaped my home and ended up at WINGS, I can say I have the best life ever.
I have completed the programming with my kids, and have been going to university. I will graduate in December with my education degree and am excited to get a job.
It took me over 3 years to get out of my abusive relationship. My ex was violent and our home was dangerous for me and my daughter. Once, he sent me pictures of a dead animal and said it was our daughter’s cat. He cut up all my ID so I felt like I was no longer a person. Violence was routine – once he kicked me in the face so hard that it caused an infection that went into my teeth. He wouldn’t let me see a doctor, so the infection spread and caused me a lot of pain. I had to get all my teeth removed and now I wear dentures.
I knew I had to get me and my daughter safe. I didn’t feel strong, I felt like a cornered animal. No one would rent a place to us, every landlord would call my ex looking for information. Turning to WINGS was the only option I had.
When I arrived and saw my apartment, I cried. Only when you feel safe can you start to heal. I knew I was going to be able to get the help I needed to become a person again. This was my opportunity. I suffer from PTSD and depression but being here and accessing the programs helps me learn about myself. It makes me feel better about myself.
There is so much emotion at group therapy, it’s helped me so much. Everyone raises each other up, instead of keeping each other down. They keep us on our path to be the best we can be.
WINGS gives me the opportunity to be a good parent to my child. This place is a sanctuary, it’s a safe-haven. When I had my dental surgery, the staff and the women here checked on me all the time. I call them my ‘soup sisters’ – we would sit and drink broth. No one here is going to judge or shame you. For women who are healing from trauma, it’s important to be surrounded by people who understand.
This is my community.
As a single parent with no resources in my community, I had to reach out elsewhere. I found that Wings of Providence was the place I needed to be at this certain time in my life. I am grateful for the personal counseling groups and assistance I received while I’m living here. The services and staff are very warm and caring people to have crossed my path in the healing journey I am now on. Also, my kids and I are in a safe environment to live freely and happily as we choose. Thank you for the opportunity to participate in a program where my family and I will benefit greatly as we grow and learn each day.
I remember the day my children and I came to Wings Home Next Door. We were down and needy. We were feeling confused, overwhelmed, scared, wondering if we will ever find peace, reassurance, relief and stability. The feeling of helplessness and inferiority, fear of abandonment, the complex state of mind we were experiencing at that moment, made us feel hopeless and unhappy.
Wings Home Next Door has shown us the true example of protection. Wings knew what we needed. Attention and constant reassurance were exactly what we were looking for. My counselor helped me improve my mental health and recover by encouraging me to discuss my emotions and my experiences, by showing me how to deal with difficult emotions and trauma. Our stay in Wings gave us another chance to gain back our dignity and humanity. Honestly, I could never imagine how we would have survived without Wings Home Next Door by our side. We are grateful for its strong support system.
My children found their place, attend kids groups, and they benefit from all the events offered to become the people they are now (camp, K days, parties, rides to parks, zoo, restaurants, and different kinds of activities). They feel good about themselves, about their academics, and about their future, because they feel safe finally. They get honors every year in school because they learned what was best for them. They think positive and they prioritize their well-being over anything else. The groups matured them and helped them overcome their fear, uncertainty, and trauma. At the same time, they get to meet other children who share the same experience, they learn from them and they support each other. The groups give them the opportunity to have those human relationships every human being needs.
We have also been helped financially with school supplies, hygiene supplies, gift cards, bus tickets, clothing, proper food). Honestly, my children and I experienced all the fun for the first time in Wings Home Next Door. Their father was confining us and preventing us from our basic rights like going to school, having fun, playing outside, having friends, having proper food. I will always remember the place where my children and I had our rights for living. I would love to stay here forever because Wings staff is our only family. We don’t have family in Canada. But at the same time, I know that other women need and deserve to be here and to experience care, love, safety the same way we do. Thank you for giving us the gift to change our life and for helping us find our path and move forward.
I am from an African country, when I was 19 years old I met my husband. I was social, always smiling and laughing and I was very close to my family. A week after we were married, my husband said we were moving to Canada.
When we moved here it was like I was in jail. Being in a strange country I didn’t know anybody. I didn’t speak English, I couldn’t drive, and I was away from my family and my friends.
The abuse took many forms. My husband wouldn’t let me leave the house, he put cameras everywhere to spy on me. He would leave for days at a time with no food in the house. Verbal abuse became physical abuse. He would often wake me up in bed by ripping the blanket off and hitting me, screaming. I thought the house was falling down on me. He would do this while our daughter slept beside me. He was angry all the time. I thought he was going to kill me, he kicked me after I had a c-seciton and he took hot oil off the stove and threw it at me.
My ex would tell me that if I phoned the police, they wouldn’t believe me, and they would take my daughter away from me. He sold my driver’s license to a homeless person, he took my permanent resident paperwork and threw it in the garbage.
My neighbours called the police, and they brought in someone who spoke Arabic. I told them my whole story. They took me away from my house with my daughter. They took us for pizza and we went through a drive-through Starbucks! I had never seen such a thing. They brought me to WINGS and my life has changed ever since.
They’ve taught my kids how to play, how to colour and how to receive hugs. I’ve learned that daycare is not a bad place, that people won’t kill me. Nobody is going to steal my stuff. Now that I can be outside, I’ve learned about stores and shopping. I can buy what I want, cook what I like. I love chocolate. I can take a bath. But the thing that makes feel joy is seeing the happiness in my daughter. My daughter is now healing.
This place gives me sunshine to move on in my life. My plans are I am going back to school and I am getting my citizenship and a new driver’s license.
This place gives me sunshine to move on in my life.
In my opinion Alberta is far more advanced regarding help for abused women and their children. Since I first arrived in Alberta, I have learned a great deal about why men abuse and why women stay. I have learned about the effects on the whole family and how to begin to heal from the abuse. I never spoke to anyone about my sexual abuse before I came here. My self-esteem is slowly rising now, and so is my confidence. It saddens me to realize the rest of Canada is so far behind in resources for battered women. Even for families in general. The shelters in Alberta have an abundance of resources and staff is always willing to find more. If they don’t have an answer they will bend over backward to find it. WINGS for me, has been a God-send. It has provided me a safe place, both physically and emotionally to pull it all together and begin a positive journey to recovery. With the help of my counselor and the wonderful staff here, I am starting to set realistic goals and learning to take it one day at a time. For the first time in my life I feel safe, understood, helped along, and most of all like I have people around me who care about me! I can’t begin to tell you how good it feels. WINGS is the beginning of a long journey for me but I can’t think of a better place to begin! Every abused woman and child should have WINGS.
For nearly 10 years I have dealt with an abusive cycle: being with the father of my children. I had exhausted all my options trying to leave on several occasions. Knowing what abuses were to come, it was clear I had to find another way out. I swallowed my pride and went to a women’s shelter. This was where I heard of WINGS.
At first I did not apply since I was determined to do it on my own. However a single mother with three children on income support cannot find housing at reasonable costs. With only a few days left at the women’s shelter, I applied for WINGS.
Now I have an apartment of my own and my children are safe. Having people there to help me through this transition has been most reassuring. My counsellor has been there to help me while I attain proper paperwork to help keep myself, as well as my children, safe. Breaking an abusive cycle alone has never worked out for me. Now I am more confident that I can finally be free this time.
Without WINGS I had nowhere safe to and probably would have ended back living with my children’s father. Without my counsellors support I would have never applied for an Emergency Protective Order which was something I should have done long a. I am excited to get my children back in a routine with a proper lifestyle. They deserve it.
I am a mom living in WINGS at the moment with my beautiful kids. I came to WINGS because I was in another shelter, which was only a 21 day stay. They suggested I to WINGS because they provide support and have programs that help with domestic abuse.
I came to Canada as an immigrant and met my spouse here. I was physically and mentally abused by my spouse. He isolated me from society. I wasn’t allowed to to work or to school. I wasn’t even allowed to grocery shopping or to visit family or friends.
WINGS changed that for me. They helped me to grow and showed me that I have the right to be treated as a human being. My counsellor is the best; she helps me to deal with my situation. Now I can speak; I am independent. I can drive a car and I am looking forward to ing to school and work. Thanks to WINGS I can get financially stable and they have made me stronger and a more positive person. This place is a home to me and my children and I wish I could stay here forever.
Daily groups help with not feeling like you are the only idiot who fell for a partner’s lies.
Weekly counselling helps with finding ways to get over the blame, shame, guilt and anger, and start healthier habits.
Bread donations help with weekly grocery budget. Clothing donations also help with the budget.
WINGS is needed in this province. Our children deserve to see their mothers safe. Our children will take over this world eventually, isn”t it better to fill their eyes with hopes and dreams than fear and despair? Do it for the kids!
Simply put, we reduce lethality for women and children living in domestic violence. Our life saving work has a ripple effect that will last generations by stopping the cycle of family violence and abuse.
As a single parent with no resources in my community, I had to reach out elsewhere. I found that Wings of Providence was the place I needed to be at this certain time in my life. I am grateful for the personal counseling groups and assistance I received while I’m living here. The services and staff are very warm and caring people to have crossed my path in the healing journey I am now on. Also, my kids and I are in a safe environment to live freely and happily as we choose. Thank you for the opportunity to participate in a program where my family and I will benefit greatly as we grow and learn each day.
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