A powerful network for Chinese Canadian domestic violence survivors

From the Chinese Canadian National Council Toronto Chapter

Up to 70 % of female murder victims are killed by their male partners! This accounts for more death and ill-health than cancer or traffic accidents.

According to our experience on working with Chinese Canadian community, the biggest barrier for Chinese Canadian abused women to get help from police and social service agencies is their traditional Chinese ideology regards domestic violence as a shameful private business. They believe that a good woman shouldn’t tell anybody on violence at home but tolerant it. Therefore, our priority on domestic violence prevention work in Chinese Canadian community is to change traditional Chinese ideology on domestic violence through community education.

“Domestic Violence Prevention Ambassador” program is a two-year project organized by Chinese Canadian National Council Toronto Chapter, Chinese Family Services of Ontario, Working Women Community Centre, and South Riverdale Community Health Centre and is funded by the City of Toronto Community Safety Investment program.

In the first year we trained 29 Women Ambassadors. We received extraordinary enthusiasm from the Chinese Canadian community. In order to meet increasing community education needs on promoting wellness regarding domestic violence, we are going to produce a DVD on the prevention of domestic violence based on true stories to be used for community education purposes. All our Year II Ambassadors will take part in this Video production activity as director, Scriptwriter, actress, actor, editor and spoke person in training phase II. Now we are recruiting our Year II Domestic Violence Prevention Ambassadors. We are expecting people who have relevant background to join this project, use their artistic talent to make contribution on domestic violence prevention in Chinese Canadian community. The project is consisted of two phases. Phase I is the Training Workshop which is to train the Ambassadors to become knowledgeable about the facts, myths, and issues of domestic violence. Phase II is the Video development, which will provide opportunity for Ambassadors to understand Chinese Canadian abused women’s real life experience and practice their learning through the DVD project.

If you would like to register, please email your resume to wa@ccnctoronto.ca. If you would like to find out more please contact Lydia Yang at 416-596-0833x 1, or visit our website at: www.ccnctoronto.ca/wa