{"id":387919,"date":"2023-03-23T06:06:15","date_gmt":"2023-03-22T20:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=387919"},"modified":"2023-03-23T06:06:15","modified_gmt":"2023-03-22T20:06:15","slug":"women-led-group-seeks-to-help-victims-of-domestic-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/women-led-group-seeks-to-help-victims-of-domestic-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"Women-led group seeks to help victims of domestic violence"},"content":{"rendered":"
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ABIGAIL volunteers and supporters gather for a picture after their \u201cAct Like a Queen\u201d banquet last Saturday at Pepoy\u2019s Restaurant Chalan Kanoa. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)
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Seeking to further empower women and advocate against domestic violence in families, the ABIGAIL organization announced that they plan to extend their services and are inviting members of the community to get involved in their mission. <\/p>\n

During the organization\u2019s Act Like a Queen banquet in Chalan Kanoa last Saturday, ABIGAIL organization president and co-founder Femie Rey said the young nonprofit organization was born right in the midst of the COVID- 19 pandemic in 2020, when so many cases of domestic violence occurred as a result of the enforced lockdown.<\/p>\n

Rey said reading about these incidents prompted her and her husband, Manuelito Rey, and their associates, Jim and Jane Turnbull, to start the organization. Rey said their vision is to \u201cbuild communities of strong healthy families where everyone has an opportunity to have a life free of oppression.\u201d ABIGAIL\u2019s mission then is to empower women and their families through the building of healthy family relationships and supporting victims of domestic violence. <\/p>\n

As of now, Rey said they have more than 10 volunteers, and their services are limited at the moment to preventive services, but she does hope to expand these to include counselling, workshops, and a food program catering to those in need, not necessarily just women, but also families. They are also open to more people getting involved. <\/p>\n

At the moment, they are partnering with the Northern Marianas Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, Rey said, and they\u2019re sending their volunteers to undergo training with the coalition in order to teach ABIGAIL volunteers how work with individuals in these complicated situations. <\/p>\n

\u201cHelping our community cannot be done by just one organization. It cannot be done by few. We need to collaborate, we need to bring in different stakeholders to keep our community safe,\u201d Rey stated.<\/p>\n

When asked what was behind the name Abigail, Rey said the nonprofit organization wasn\u2019t just named after a Biblical character, Abigail, but each letter in the name stands for something: \u201cA\u201d for advocacy; \u201cB\u201d for brilliance; \u201cI\u201d for Intelligence; \u201cG\u201d for good morals; \u201cA\u201d for affirmation; \u201cI\u201d for instruction; and \u201cL\u201d for love. <\/p>\n

And although it may appear that way, ABIGAIL is not a religious organization, Rey said; it aims to help anyone. \u201cVolunteers are not limited to those who go to churches. \u2026They don\u2019t need be a member of our church.\u201d <\/p>\n

Rey said the organization is separate from their church, but the church is just currently providing a temporary facility for them. \u201cThis organization\u2019s support should be for everyone who are victims of domestic violence, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, religion, and social status.\u201d She said the organization is open to all those who want to volunteer or are in need of some kind of assistance. <\/p>\n

Rey said that ABIGAIL\u2019s is open to anyone who wants to volunteer their time, or place, whether to conduct a workshop where skills can be taught and learned; or donate food or money to push the cause forward. <\/p>\n

For inquiries or more information on how to get involved, contact Rey at femierey.abigails@gmail.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seeking to further empower women and advocate against domestic violence in families, the ABIGAIL organization…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":387920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-387919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}