Leaving a forced marriage can be an emotional rollercoaster. But on Tuesday, we traded emotional rollercoasters for real ones as we spent the day with our clients at Six Flags Great Adventure.
One of the many ways we support forced and child marriage survivors is by hosting an annual retreat to give our clients and their children a day of fun — and to give survivors a chance to meet, mingle and share their inspiring stories. In past years, we’ve also gathered to watch Broadway shows such as “Aladdin” and “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.”
This year, we traveled together to Six Flags while playing bus games and doing fun crafts, gathered for a pizza buffet parking lot picnic lunch, passed the time in long lines with a park-wide scavenger hunt and ended the day with dinner and reminiscing. Some of our clients conquered their fears as they rode their first rollercoaster or high-flying swings. Others welcomed the opportunity to spend the day with their kids and to meet fellow survivors. We even made some new friends along the way as we cruised through Six Flags’ safari park, the highlight of the day. Our clients’ children were screaming with joy each time one of our new animal friends came to say hello!
We learned on the safari that elephant herds are led by the matriarch, who bears the responsibility of making critical decisions, from determining when and where to move to how to react to potential dangers. This is a striking metaphor for the support we at Unchained offer to survivors, and it shows the unlimited potential of women and girls when they’re free to make their own decisions. Please support our work so we can continue to uplift and empower survivors to live a life of their own choosing and to continue to provide powerful experiences for them to encourage and share with each other.
