Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) - 3015

Tonight's special guest is Daria Heller from Middletown, Ohio, who works as a volunteer at the HopeHouse Homeless Shelter for Women. Her emphasis is on teaching life skills to facilitate women’s re-entry into the world, to create good life choices and to rise above their broken past. Daria said, “I understand what it's like to be broken and afflicted just like the women I serve because I am survivor of child abuse.” Each survivor of abuse has their own unique set of violations against their person which makes generalization on what constitutes child abuse impossible. How was Daria violated as a child? She endured absolute isolation, complete alienation, never developed all the skills one learns in a functional and healthy childhood. She just didn’t matter to her parents. At six years old she prayed God would take her that night so she would not have to face another day of unending, on-going, daily pain. Finally, on her 18th birthday, she tried to commit suicide because she could not imagine a life unlike the last 18 years. Life for Daria was a half-life. She was ashamed and she hid all the ways her childhood broke her. She mimicked the lives of those she considered “normal” but always falling back into the dark pits of despair, ruinous behavior, and suicide attempts. But this isn’t the story God was writing for her. Daria said, “God pursued me, fought for me, planned a spacious place for me. God never let go and never gave up on me. He saved me, transformed me, healed me, and brought me into his presence and peace.” Today, Daria is living out God’s message to her: Seek out my children who are alone, afflicted, and broken and I will shine my light on them through you.