Women Helping Women: Meet the Locals Changing Lives

Women Helping Women: Meet the Locals Changing Lives

Truth for Women

truthforwomen.org

Truth for Women aims to shine a spotlight on a problem that many Lehigh Valley residents might be surprised to learn exists in their own backyard: sex trafficking. “It’s been going on right under our noses,” says advocate Chris Zweifel. She was first inspired to get involved with the organization more than six years ago, when she was looking to get back into the working world after raising six children. “I wanted to do something that was meaningful to me,” she says.

Before assuming her current position, she worked at the group’s residential home, where women who manage to separate themselves from their traffickers begin the arduous process of rebuilding their lives and regaining their independence through an individualized program that covers everything from physical and mental health to learning everyday skills. “Some don’t know how to do basic things, like how to grocery shop or dress,” says Zweifel. “They’re so used to being told what to do. They see themselves as broken and damaged goods.”

While the road back from that terrible reality is often long and fraught with difficulties, Zweifel says she’s seen success stories firsthand. She points to two women whom she got to know during their time working their way through the Truth for Women program—one went on to graduate from beauty school, and the other became a certified nursing assistant. “To see them through that process has been amazing,” Zweifel says. They’re an embodiment of the small incremental successes that Zweifel says can add up to long-term change. It’s the kind of outcome Truth for Women staff and volunteers strive for in each of the women who come through their front door. “We are privileged to be in the position to say, ‘You are amazing,’” says Zweifel.

Still, she knows that for every woman who does manage to escape the clutches of human trafficking for good, there are countless others who do not. “The public may think you surround someone with comfortable amenities, and that’s all they need to make a change—but it’s not,” she says. One challenge, Zweifel says, is breaking the cycle of abuse. “They don’t see themselves as victims,” she says. “They are so bonded to their traffickers.”

But the best defense, Zweifel says, may be stopping the abuse before it starts by staying one step ahead of traffickers and their insidious recruitment methods. “Traffickers know what to look for,” Zweifel says. “We need to invest in vulnerable youth. That is our best protection.” She encourages anyone and everyone to get involved in the lives of the young people around them. “You can volunteer. You can advocate. You can prevent.”

According to Zweifel, Truth for Women is one of a handful of agencies teaming up for the first Lehigh Valley Anti-Trafficking Awareness Week in early November. It’s a way of expanding their collective mission to beef up their resources and reach those still stuck in the shadows. “The number of those in need far outweighs what’s available,” Zweifel says.

Turning Point

turningpointlv.org

It’s never easy to listen to the horror stories that are all too common in her line of work, but Deisy Rivera knows it’s necessary. “It’s not about me,” she says. “It’s about them. I have to do my job.” Rivera is the Safe House Director for Turning Point of Lehigh Valley, a safe haven for victims of abuse and their children that was founded in 1978. Prior to taking on that role more than a year ago, she worked the phones as a helpline advocate. “I have a love for what I do, and I do it with passion,” she says.

What Rivera also has is a keen understanding of what those she strives to help have endured—she, too, is a domestic violence survivor. “I was around it for as long as I can remember. Since I was a child,” she says. But Rivera doesn’t bemoan the difficult circumstances of her past. Instead, she uses her experiences as a way to relate to the women (and sometimes men) who need her help now. “I’ve been told a few times, ‘Wow, I feel this connection,’” she says of her interactions with those at the safe house, or on the other end of the helpline.

Turning Point began as a group of domestic violence survivors answering a hotline in their homes; now it reaches some 2,600 people a year with its programs and services, which, in addition to housing, include counseling, support groups, court advocacy and assistance with immigration issues. Although its primary focus is Lehigh and Northampton counties, Rivera says it’s not unusual to be contacted from someone who needs help from much farther away. “I’m here to give options,” Rivera says. “To give them hope, to just listen.” That translates into a lot of long days for Rivera and her team—“sometimes six days a week, sometimes seven”—and a lot of sleepless nights as well. “There are days when I think, I don’t think my heart could take another story,” she says.

When Rivera first meets those who are new to the program, they’re often at their lowest point. “There’s no hope. They’ve given up. They talk to you with their head down. They ask for permission to use the bathroom.” But, with patience, perseverance and time, change is possible. Rivera says she’s seen it herself. “It’s just a whole 360. It’s beautiful.

This person found themselves, and you were a part of that.” And that, says Rivera, is what keeps her going even on her most trying days. “I don’t see myself doing anything else,” she says. “I see myself helping others.”

Khineder Creations

khinedercreations.com

A friendship has morphed into a business partnership with a shared mission for Kelly Worley and Khine Zaw. As Worley, of Emmaus, remembers it, she was curious about the new shop that had opened its doors in town in 2017. She exchanged pleasantries with Zaw over Facebook Messenger before paying a visit to Khineder Creations to meet the purveyor of all-natural skin and beauty products in the flesh. “We were kind of inseparable that Saturday,” Worley recalls. She learned that, in addition to its skin-care line, Khineder Creations sells scarves, purses and other items that are made by mothers and abuse survivors, many of whom Zaw met through her humanitarian work in her native Myanmar (formerly Burma). A portion of the store’s proceeds are returned to those same women.

Worley says she quickly recognized a kindred spirit in Zaw. “I’m looking to give back to a community that’s been so wonderful to me,” she explains. In the mid-90s, Worley was a young, single mom trying to finish college when she got a financial assist from United Way to help pay for her daughter’s daycare. But even before that act of generosity left its mark on her, Worley says she’s been privy to the power of helping others in need: “I come from a long line of strong, empowered women.” She credits her grandmothers and mother with demonstrating the importance of volunteering in the community; it’s wisdom she imparts to her own brood, which grew by two more daughters after she married her current husband, Bill, in 1998. “Helping other women is a priority for me,” Worley says. “We can build each other up and support each other. Not tear each other down.”

It was an easy decision, then, to join Zaw’s team more than two years ago. But, although her official title may be sales consultant, Worley says her real niche is helping to organize the shop’s “Meet N Keep” events, which offer an array of wisdom, learning opportunities and insight to anyone with an open mind and two hours to burn on a Saturday afternoon. Past speakers include a spiritual healer, an expert in Japanese poetic forms and a former refugee from Rwanda who went on to establish her own business. The goal is to provide a welcoming space for anyone in search of fellowship, and a safe space for those who may need something more. “So many women have been touched with something—drug abuse, domestic abuse, sex trafficking,” Worley says. “Getting out of any bad situation can be very difficult, and very lonely. The store always has coffee, tea and a listening ear. If we can’t help you, we’ll point you to someone who can.”

Worley says she’s been fortunate to meet some of the women who have benefited from the work that’s happening every day at Khineder Creations. “It truly is amazing and rewarding when someone will say to you, ‘Thank you. You helped us.’”