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Shield of Athena launches multilingual help line in Laval
Campaign against sexual abuse asks: ‘Do you have a secret?’
Published December 1 , 2009
By Martin C. Barry • TLN

Photo: Martin C. Barry
Left, Shield of Athena president Pearl Eliadis and Melpa Kamateros, executive
director of the organization.

In response to a growing need for better information by female victims of violence in Laval’s ethnic communities, Shield of Athena family services has launched a new public awareness campaign on sexual abuse entitled “Do you have a secret?” Unveiled during a press conference held at Laval Police headquarters on Nov. 24, the campaign was developed with the financial support of Status of Women Canada, with the collaboration of the police department, community groups and ethnic media.

Ads in 15 languages
Shield of Athena developed multilingual educational tools to facilitate the transmission of their message on sexual abuse, the laws and resources for combatting it, and to raise awareness in victims and communities about sexual abuse in intimate partner relationships. The organization developed a series of television and radio ads in 15 languages, emphasizing the importance of condemning violence and supporting sexual abuse victims, as well as the booklet, “Do you have a secret,” published in 15 languages and in Braille.
For more than 18 years, Shield of Athena has worked with the various ethnocultural communities in the Montreal region to raise awareness of family violence. As part of the campaign, a specially prepared article translated into 14 languages will be printed in newspapers in the ethnic communities. Information sessions with the different ethnocultural communities in their respective languages are also planned, as are television and radio interviews, a multilingual help line available in 13 languages in Laval, and multilingual information cards listing available telephone resources.

New help line in Laval
The confidential help line will be one of the key components of the campaign in Laval. The line will operate in Arabic, Armenian, Creole, Spanish, Farsi, Greek, Italian, Mandarin, Urdu, Portuguese, Rumanian, Russian and Vietnamese. The line was created to overcome linguistic barriers which might prevent women of ethnic origins from obtaining help against sexual assault and abuse.
“The significant innovation that we have seen in this project is obviously the capacity, the ability and the will to work with a number of multicultural, multilingual communities, recognizing that service in their language is not a privilege but is a right,” said Pearl Eliadis, Shield of Athena’s president. “Looking at the particular services that women and children need is a priority for this organization. Having the service and the capacity in-house, in the organization, as we do, providing 10 languages in-house, is fundamental to this and the capacity to communicate our message in those languages is fundamental.”

Booklet’s powerful message
Shield of Athena’s “Do you have a secret” booklet expands on the idea that “sometimes there are secrets that women are afraid to share.” It is filled with aphorisms of specific interest to women, such as “we wrongly believe that sexual assaults are committed by strangers in unsafe places such as alleys and other deserted areas.” But, as the tiny book goes on to say, in over 80 per cent of sexual assault cases, victims know their attacker. An especially powerful message about half-way through the booklet states: “No human being should have to suffer in their body, mind and soul in the name of their culture, religion or traditions.”
A number of groups from Laval that deal with victims of sexual abuse are participating in the project. The Centre de Prévention et d’Intervention pour Victimes d’Agression Sexuelle (CPIVAS), which has existed since 1985, provides intervention, prevention, training and strives to raise awareness of the plight of sexual abuse victims. The group’s position is that sexual abuse is the abuse of power. As part of the health and social services provided by the Centre de Santé et de services sociaux le Laval, the CSSS operates the Centre désigné de Laval pour les Victimes d’Agression Sexuelle from the CLSC du Marigot on des Laurentides Boulevard.