The women brainstormed almost fifty possible topics. They chose to focus on abuse, with a strong emphasis on sexual abuse. It happened that one of the women had made an effort to join a group for adults who had been molested as children. She could not, however, read the pamphlet that was given to her. When she explained her situation, the group decided that our project would be to re-write the information so more people would be able to read it.

A facilitator came to talk to the group about clear language and plain publishing. The group then took the pamphlet, and through trial and error, re-wrote it. In this process, the women looked at the information from not only an academic but also a personal perspective. Many of the women discovered that they shared the same feelings, and talked about how they had overcome them. They offered each other guidance and counselling from a position that few counsellors can have. Not only did the women understand what it was like to suffer so terribly, they were also still in the process of coming to terms with what they had experienced. They were truly peers.

After the first few weeks of group meetings, it became clear to me that every woman was experiencing significant academic and personal growth. They all looked forward to "CCLOW" as our group was called. In response to their enthusiasm, we extended the group meetings to twice a week and then to every morning. During this time, CCLOW reimbursed the program for one-half day each week during which I talked about, reflected on, and wrote about what was happening in this woman-positive activity. The coordinating researcher, Betty-Ann Lloyd, came to visit the program twice and I attended the remaining two national workshops where I met with women from the other eleven programs involved.

All of the women felt very good about re-writing the pamphlet, "Adults Molested as Children." They saw this pamphlet as the first step in getting women to seek counselling and felt that if it were easy to read, more women would begin the process of healing. Having this work treated as important and being able to do something to help others in the community were a tremendous boost to the women's sense of self-confidence. Now that this particular activity has ended, all of the women have continued on paths to personal and academic growth, fueled by the gains each made in this innovative and productive project.

Diane Eastman is an Adult Education Facilitator at the Brandon Friendship Centre in Manitoba. Discovering the Strength of Our Voices documents the first part of CCLOW's women and literacy project. See ordering information on the inside front cover. Also available is "A Chance to Talk: the Birth of the Feminist Literacy Workers' Network" from CCLOW for a cost of $1.50 to cover postage and handling.

Theresa

Theresa was only able to say that she had been abused. She couldn't or wouldn't say any more. After hearing the other women tell parts of their stories and talk about the issue of abuse, however, she was able to tell me her story for the very first time.

She said she didn't know where to begin. I suggested she treat it as a writing assignment and we followed the steps we use in the classroom. The only difference was that she spoke and I scribed for her; Two days later she held the finished piece in her hand. She told me she had never been able to think about it before without being overwhelmed by feelings. She had never admitted the abuse to anyone because she hadn't been able to put it into words.

Theresa also learned much about the process of writing. It was probably the most useful assignment she had ever done. She and I discussed every aspect of the writing from punctuation to readability. The writing she did in her class assignments improved as a result of working on this in-depth story that meant so much to her.

Theresa is now attending a high school program.


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