When Home Becomes a Dangerous Place
September 30, 2008
A few weeks ago, a Ukrainian woman walked in the office of a social worker in Bensonhurst. She was crying and desperate for help. She was a prisoner in her own home. Her husband had turned her into his slave. He psychologically harassed her, and abused her in many ways. He did not allow her to take English courses or work to make her own money. She did not have any family or friends and she could not communicate in English.
Like many Russian-speaking women, this 39-year-old Ukrainian woman stopped the abuse with the help of Project Nyet (nyet means “no” in Russian). She left her husband shortly after her visit to the Edith and Carl Marx Jewish Community House of Bensonhurst with the help of social worker Olga Vlafova.
The Brooklyn district attorney’s office has launched Project Nyet to fight domestic violence within the fast-growing Russian-speaking community. This program provides emergency services, financial aid, counseling and legal assistance in Russian. The district attorney established it two years ago and it is funded by a grant from the Department of Justice. Project Nyet also provides counseling and emotional support.
The Russian-speaking community is estimated to be over 500,000 people in Brooklyn and includes neighborhoods such as Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst. The coordinator of the domestic violence program at the district attorney’s office, Cristin Mathiez, said the problem of domestic abuse is particularly acute in the Russian community because recent immigrants are isolated by language and bring with them from their native country a fear of the police, preventing abused women from seeking help and stopping the violence.
Mathiez said that the batterers often frighten their victims with what might happen to them if they call the police. She said that immigrants were more vulnerable because they feared that reporting the abuse would put them in jeopardy due to their immigrant status.
“Domestic violence is all about power and control,” she said. “There is a culture of secrecy: they don’t want their partners to speak about it or learn about their rights.”
Mathiez said that illegal immigrants should not be afraid to contact them. “We don’t care about the victim’s immigrant status,” she said. “We will help anyone who comes to us. We even help them get a legal status in the country if it is an option.”
Project Nyet is the result of collaborative work of several organizations, such as the Edith and Carl Marks Jewish Community House of Bensonhurst and the New York City Domestic Hotline, which provides emergency assistance to victims of domestic violence. The social workers also work with several hospitals and police precincts to reach out to battered women and provide them with legal assistance in order to get the perpetrator arrested. After an arrest is made, the victims are informed of the opportunities available to them and they are immediately referred to a social worker, who helps them seek a safe environment and the option to flee their aggressor and find refuge in a shelter.
Mathiez said that more people are reaching out to them because women pass the information to other women and more people know where to go if they are victim of an abuse.
“We don’t advertise the meeting locations to protect the victims and preserve their safety, but they can call our hotline at any time and get the assistance they need,” she said.
Mathiez said they also reach out to the community through a talk show in Russian on Radio BCE, which gives victims of abuse the chance to hear about the topic and what actions can be taken. Mathiez said that their main goal was to keep the community informed and know what resources were available to help them escape violence.
She said that they worked towards making these women feel comfortable enough to open up and take legal actions against their abusers.
Olga Vlafova, 31, a Latvian social worker at Project Nyet, said that they help anyone who walks in the center regardless of where they are from or if they are undocumented aliens. She said that the organizations involved in the Nyet program worked together to provide a variety of services to help the victims of abuse. The district attorneys’s office provides legal assistance to the victims, and the Jewish Community House provides counseling and psychological support.
Vlafova said that many options are available to the victims, including financial assistance and shelters where they can stay if they leave their abusers. Project Nyet also provides the victims with cell phones programmed to call 911, and the victims have access to a 24-hour hotline that can help them in case of emergency.
However, Vlafova said, regardless of all the opportunities offered to the victims, it is still a challenge for the victims to permanently leave their assaulter. “On average, women leave their abusers seven times before they leave them for good,” she said.
Sabina Zhitomirsky, who runs Project Nyet at the district attorney’s office, said that they have helped hundreds of women, both in Criminal and Family Courts, and that they have significantly improved the lives of many Russian-speaking women.
For emergency assistance, victims can call the New York City Domestic Violence hotline at (800) 621-HOPE or Sabrina Zhitomirsky, counselor at the district attorney’s office, at (718) 250-3186.