We’re on a Battlefield
Ranelle was waiting to cross Mission Street and come into work when she saw a man run up behind a woman, grab her by the hair, throw her to the ground and begin beating her. As Ranelle watched from across the street, the people near by stepped back, and refused to help. The woman was crying out for help, but no-one would intervene. By the time Ranelle got across the street, the woman had fled, but the man was pacing the street. She told me what happened as soon as she got in the office, I told Ranelle to lock the door and I went to look for the woman.
As I walked down the block wanting to help her, I asked the people on the sidewalk and the nearby stores if they saw what happened. They all heard the woman crying, but not one of them called the police! When I found her in a gas station, they were giving her a paper towel to clean her face, but asking her to leave. I offered to bring her to the center and to call the police. I told her she could wait at our office for the police to come. When we began to walk out of the gas station, she said she was afraid he’d be outside. I told her not to worry, that I would be with her and we’d be okay. While we walked together to the office, I noticed her phone continued to buzz repeatedly.
I handed Nakia our phone at the office, and she told the police office that her ex-boyfriend had attacked her on the street, and was texting her that if she walked out of the gas station, he was waiting for her with a knife and would kill her. We locked the door while we waited for the police, and Nakia began to share about her situation. She recently found out she was pregnant, and when she told her boyfriend, he pushed her out of bed and began kicking her stomach trying to kill the baby. The incident Ranelle witnessed was one of several in which he attacked her in public, but this was the first time anyone intervened to help her. We were the only people that tried to protect her from further harm.
For Nakia, and thousand of women each year, there is great pressure to “get rid of the problem pregnancy.” We’re so thankful we were near by to help Nakia when we heard her cries. And we’ll continue to support her throughout her pregnancy and as she raises her child.
On Friday, we’ll be offering you an opportunity to join us is responding to the cries of this battlefield, to protect life and help women. Attending our Annual Banquet, Crossing the Threshold, this Friday can be your first step to protect women like Nakia and children in the womb.
