The Houston Area Women's Center: http://www.hawc.org The center offers telephone and on-site counseling. The center has counselors who speak different languages (Spanish, Cantonese/Mandarin, VietNamese) and/or can facilitate a conference call with another center with counselors who speak other languages. The on-site counseling is confidential and secured. The center offers mental health counseling; needs-based, sliding scale housing assistance at their shelter; job skills training; and district-supported school programs. What generally happens is that a mother, her children, and maybe one suitcase of belongings will come to the center; a counselor will determine what kind of assistance she (and her children) will need; and if there is room, offer her (and her children) an opportunity to stay at the current shelter. If there is no room, the counselor will work with other local groups to find the mother and her children a place to stay. "The mother and children are NEVER left to fend for themselves." The children are removed from their current schools and taught in the center's district-supported programs. The mother has the choice to stay at her current job or if she fears for her safety, the center will provide resources/training to find another job. If she decides to stay at her current job, the center will work with her to prepare for possible safety concerns. The center has a program with a celluar company to provide telephones to would-be victims for emergency calls to 911. [The Holiday Store is a program (at the center) that allows the kids to select holiday gifts for their mother, mothers to select gifts for their children, the selected gifts are wrapped and presented to the families on Christmas day. It is through the Holiday Store program that I found out about the center's resources. If you want, the center is accepting new items for the Holiday Store -- with gifts for teenage boys being the more pressing need.] [Without giving out too much information, the new rail system will also provide a valuable resource to (would-be) victims of abuse.]
One more thing...the center works with legal counsel to help victims who are in the US by marriage. Immigration laws used to require immediate deportation following the dissolution of the marriage, but I think those laws have recently changed and the victims have few more legal recourses.
God... this **** makes me want to cry. I pray she'll find the strength to leave. I hope she'll be okay. Please keep us updated ROckets03.
Generally I am against the death penalty, but I'd make an exception for creeps like this guy. Next to pedophiles, there's nothing more sickening than a dude who beats up his wife/girlfriend.
Hey guys thanks for every single piece of adivce. My girlfriend related all of this to her friend. Good news - SHE LEFT THAT b*stard!!!! Gone out of state to a safe place where he wont be able to find her. Of course this pathetic excuse for a man is threatning her family back in Bangladesh. Anyways I dont want to make her life an open book....but lets just say he got mad at her in a public place. The police were called and she just his sorry ass right there. I was personally hoping they would throw this guy in jail, but oh well. A wife beater who is a muslim with the name Mohammed wont get away with that much in the US for long at a time like this Once again thanks for all your help and prayers.
cheers! Hey...can I have his phone number...I have a prank for him? If not...post his email address to the board...i'm sure we can come up with something.
