Women Freedom Fund
Freeing women one chain at a time
I know my story may be a little intense and raw but the mission of Primrose is very dear to me. I grew up in a house with an abusive, borderline father and my mother, who took 15 years to finally dare and leave him. He would regularly beat her, still the constant fear and the ceaseless mental abuse was much worse. For example, he would tell me I did not have enough value to be alive and how he hoped that I would get hit by a car. Once he even forced me to walk in the middle of the road after saying this. The constant fear of his abusive moods fostered an unbearable and constant tension whenever he was around. It was not until he used a pair of scissors and hurt my mother to an inch of her life, while I was protecting my 5 year old brother in the other room, that we finally decided to run away from him. After going to the police we withdrew into a women shelter, a time I can only describe as both deeply emotional but also the first time in my life I truly felt free. We were still unsure about even being able to still live in the Netherlands. He had promised us so many times he would find and kill us if we would ever go to the police, that I believed it. But something was different now we had made the choice and taken, maybe in a small way, our lives in our own hands.
All the hurt and torment that I experienced over those years always fuelled me to strive for a different life. It was very hard at times but I have always pushed myself to not become just a victim, I always wanted to use the pain to create something more powerful and more beautiful than all the evil in the world will ever be able to crush. I can still remember when this thought truly ignited in me. I was 9 years old and they were having one of the worst physical fights that I had ever witnessed so far. I watched them and was paralysed, and then I decided, THIS WILL STOP, WHEN I GROW UP I WILL NEVER LET THIS HAPPEN AGAIN!
And now I am grown up. After having dabbled in portret painting and acting, I now have a small but successful jewellery company and I have met the love of my life. We have been together for almost 10 years now. Truly the best years of my life. It has not always been easy but through sometimes disagreeing, him being grumpy or me giving him a hard time we have never… ever… had a bad argument. We always work it out and he deeply understands me and empowers me to blossom.
I feel honoured to be able to finally give back and start making a difference for other women. I know there are women that suffer a much, much worse fate than me or my mother. The things that are still being done to women all over the world are horrific and should be stopped right now. I know me or my company cannot change everything, but even being able to free one little girl, the same way I became free when I was 15, will make my time here on earth have not been for nothing. That is why I have devoted to monthly give a part of the profits of Primrose to women shelters and other women charities. The goal is to help fund the change that will help women to break free and finally blossom up like the strong and powerful forces for good we can be.
I started by giving money to the movement of women shelters that helped my mother and me when we had to escape. But both me and the other girls at Primrose are always looking at other projects to support. We just don’t want to fund large organizations, we much rather give straight to the people that do the helping. Also we decided to only fund organizations that benefit the freedom and empowerment of women. If you have any suggestions for us, feel absolutely free to contact me personally. Since we are still a small company we can only contribute in a small way but we do everything we can to get our funding to make the biggest difference.
Thank you for reading my story and I hope we can make this world a better place, together.