Posted by Yolanda Webb on August 26, 2009 at 11:52pm
Broken voices can regain a strength and beauty unknown before. What is a broken voice you might ask. It's a woman or a family who live inside the silence of domestic violence and abuse.I have had the chance to live all over the world and it still hits me hard when I talk to women who live inside the quiet of their own broken voices. I talked to one of my customers today who said she needed some cover stick or camouflage creme. I made a joke about her running through those little tubes like they were free.Then I felt stupid and ashamed. No, I didn't know - haven't known in all these years - that she was one of the many broken voices. Her non-answer filled the silence on the phone. Hers is a broken voice. More broken than anyone I have heard in a long time. Why? Because she is an African-American sister who holds a professional job, has a degree and all the information and knowledge at her fingertips about domestic violence.Black women more often than any other group - refuse to talk about domestic abuse. We are ashamed. So we get up and go to work everyday, get the kids ready for school, help with homework, cook dinner, shop and a whole lot of other things in our "Camouflage Creme."Perhaps many years ago we were taught, "What happens in this house, stays in this house." I wish our grandmothers could see a part of what their strength training did. I wish their grandmothers could hear their broken voices. Women's shelters are often filled to capacity. But even more so when families are growing through economic crisis like we face now. Money or the lack there of can create Broken Voices.A tear rolled from my eye as I thought about this customer today using our Camouflage Creme to conceal her wounds. I was moved to action. I quickly began to work to provide the necessary resources for the E'LON Center for Women. A non-profit arm of E'LON Couture Cosmetics in order to become a voice for those women of color suffering in silence - suffering with Broken Voices.Did you know that African-American women experience domestic abuse/violence at rates 35% higher than their white counterparts? Did you know that domestic violence homicide is the leading cause of death for African-American women ages 15 to 45?When you reflect and pray tonight think of those with Broken Voices in our communities. Some women may not have tomorrow, all they have is NOW. All they have is you and I. If you hear their silence...Act. Because E'LON Couture will act we hope Broken Voices will regain their strength and their beauty.
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