OMENA
A youth-led, and youth-centered organization that is breaking the cycle of emotional abuse through preventive mental health training, evidence-based social-emotional education, and community support.
Back in my country, Madagascar, the only form of abuse that I could recognize was physical abuse. Once in America, I learned through my training as a Peer Educator that violence often begins with emotional abuse, gradually increasing to violent physical abuse. Through my research, I discovered I was not the only one with a limited definition of abuse. I started being passionate about the subject. I was mind blown by all the things I found out that I decided to share about it. That’s how “Omena” came about.
It’s estimated by the WHO that up to 1 billion children worldwide have suffered in the last year from emotional abuse: 1 billion children most likely with trauma, low self-esteem, anxiety, depression, and isolation. Emotional abuse starts in the household, often having a spillover effect in all the other relationships in our lives and it is passed on from generation to generation.
Emotional abuse is a global crisis. Without the proper resources to prevent abuse there is deep economic impact. In the U.S alone, the CDC estimates the cost of emotional abuse to be $124 billion. Expenses like hospital cost, criminal justice costs and productivity losses means that emotional abuse affects even more than just its direct victims.
