Tag: survivor

My Good Name

Crystal Good

“Except my name. I’ll give up all that other stuff, but only if I get to keep my name. I’ve worked too hard for it, your honor.” ~ Tina Turner My mother married Ron Good when I was in kindergarten. Shortly thereafter, he started sexually abusing me. In the second Read more

Crystal Good

Crystal Good is hard to put in just one box. She prefers: artist, advocate and entrepreneur. She is a member of the Affrilachian (African American Appalachian) Poets, a group of writers and artists whose creations and existence combat the erasure of African American identity in the Appalachian region, an Irene McKinney Scholar, and the author of Valley Girl. She is the founder and CEO of Mixxed Media , a government relations consulting firm that leverages social & media engagement strategies for mission-driven organizations. Crystal holds the completely made up but totally real office of "Social Media Senator" for the Digital District Of West Virginia whose platform encourages digital and political literacy. Artist::Advocate:: crystalgood.net Entrepreneur:: themixxedmedia.com

Leaving My Ex Sparked Decades of Unintended Consequences

Lizbeth Meredith

“My name is Precious, how can I help you?” “I think I need to go to your shelter,” I blurted. My daughters, still both in diapers, were wailing in the background. The battered women’s shelter. Never had I thought I would be a battered woman, or that I would live Read more

Lizbeth Meredith

Lizbeth Meredith's memoir Pieces of Me: Rescuing My Kidnapped Daughters is a 2017 IPPY Award silver medalist. She blogs at www.lameredith.com, is a contributor to A Girls’ Guide To Travelling Alone by Gemma Thompson, and is the author of When Push Comes to Shove: How to Help When Someone You Love Is Being Abused. A former domestic violence advocate, Lizbeth has worked with at-risk teens for nearly two decades as a juvenile probation supervisor.

Finding My Voice in Silence

Clementine Bihiga

My daughter came into this world, in silence. My daughter taught me how to give, in silence. My daughter taught me how to love, in silence. You see, at the age of 8, I survived the Rwandan Genocide. Close to a million people died in a short period of 3 Read more

Clementine Bihiga

Clementine Bihiga is an inspirational public speaker and the author of "Happily Broken: Discovering Happiness Through Pain and Suffering". At the age of eight, Clementine and her family were forced to flee their home in Rwanda due to the Genocide and Civil war of 1994 which killed almost a million people in 3 months. Clementine and her family lived as refugees in multiple refugee camps and settlements before they were admitted to the USA in 1999 as refugees. Clementine who faced many life and death situations at a young age including living in refugee camps and waking up among the dead, being bullied as a high school student and losing a daughter, has turned her tragic past into a positive calling of inspiring others to never give up. When Clementine climbed on a "log" in lake Kivu trying to rescue a shirt taken by the waves and finally realizing it was a dead body, she could have given up. When she was almost beaten to death by a motorist on her way home, she could have given up. When she woke up among dead bodies claimed by Malaria, Typhoid, Cholera, etc. she could have given up hope. When she got to the USA and was bullied in high school for being different every single day, she would have quit and given up. Life was unforgiving for Clementine, but she pressed on. Clementine is a prolific linguist who speaks 5 languages, she is actively involved with many organizations such as the Student Leadership Council, World Youth Alliance, the United Nations Agents of Change, the Human Rights Committee, The Student Achievement in Research and Scholarships and the Student Advisory Committee for Foreign Discrimination. Clementine was also selected to be on a panel of the Africana Studies at the Stander Symposium and a panel on International Discrimination. Clementine was able to work as a Campaign Fellow for the United WayShe and intern at the New York State Attorney General's Office. While still in college. After college, Clementine and her husband Chris, who she met in a refugee settlement in Kenya were married. They became proud parents of a son in 2011. As a full-time mother and a full-time employee in Healthcare sales, Clementine decided to also get her Masters Degree. She accomplished this in one year and graduate with a 3.9 GPA with a Masters in Public Administration in HealthCare Administration and also earned a promotion at work for exceeding her sales goals by 160% the same year! She can be seen speaking at many conferences and groups on topics of Self-esteem, Resilience, Working Together, Bullying and Transforming Pain into Happiness