Blog

November 14, 2013 – Meeting Roundup

This week, Ann Smith, Executive Director of the Shenandoah Women’s Center  (SWC) will speak about the Center’s role in the community. The SWC is committed to providing services that address the needs of domestic violence and sexual assault victims/survivors and their non-offending family members. In addition, they strive to educate the community so as to change the fundamental beliefs and practices that allow abuse to continue.

The Shenandoah Women’s Center, Inc. (SWC), is a non-profit, community-based agency that was founded in 1977 by a group of community volunteers, who wanted to help women who were being abused by their partners. They formed the area’s first crisis hotline for battered women. Since then, SWC has grown into a comprehensive resource and counseling center offering multiple Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia.

SWC is funded in part by the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Services, the West Virginia Division of Criminal Justice Services, the U.S. Department of Justice Violence Against Women Act and Victims of Crime Act, the United Way, the Baltimore Conference of United Methodist Women, the West Virginia Foundation for Rape Information and Services, United Way of Berkeley County, United Way of Jefferson County, United Way of Morgan County, Phillip Morris Foundation, U.S.Cellular, and private contributions and donations.

The SWC is dedicated to the self-empowerment of battered or abused persons and their children, and, therefore, is committed to the elimination of personal and societal violence in the lives of women, men and children. The SWC believes that violence against women and children results from the use of threat of force or actual force to achieve and maintain control over others in intimate relationships, and also results from domination and societal abuses of power. The SWC recognizes that the abuses of power in society fostering battering and perpetuate conditions which condone violence against women and children.

Therefore, it is the mission of the Shenandoah Women’s Center to work for the major societal changes necessary to eliminate both personal and societal violence against all people. The Shenandoah Women’s Center, as a community resource center, offers counseling, education, shelter, support, and advocacy for any person who experienced or is threatened by domestic or sexual violence. The Shenandoah Women’s Center identifies, investigates, and seeks to eliminate domestic violence and sexual assault.

Also, this week we will hear from Mora Garay, our exchange student from Argentina.

Mora is from Corrientes, which is in the northeastern part of Argentina near the border with Paraguay. With an average temperature of 70° in Corrientes, it is probably taking Mora a while getting used to our autumn (and soon to be winter) temperatures. Corrientes is the capital city of the province of Corrientes, Argentina, located on the eastern shore of the Paraná River, about 1,000 km (621 mi) from Buenos Aires and 300 km (186 mi) from Posadas, on National Route 12. It has a population of 328,689 according to the 2001 Census. It lies opposite its twin city, Resistencia, Chaco. With a mainland area of 2,780,400 km2 (1,073,500 sq mi), Argentina is the eighth-largest country in the world, the second largest in Latin America and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations. Argentina claims sovereignty over part of Antarctica, the Falkland Islands (Spanish: Islas Malvinas), South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.

Come this week to find out about the Shenandoah Women’s Center and our exchange student.

Croatian Exchange