Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) - 883

Tonight's special guest is Mandy Trouten from South Carolina, a returning NAACA family member, child abuse survivor and anti-violence and abuse activist who does peer counseling. Ms Trouten is also the author of two books. Her first was "Maybe Today" and the second one "Shadows of Night" was published since we last saw Mandy. "I write about sexual violence because I saw it first-hand'" she says. "I have relatives and friends who are victims. I've seen first-hand the damage it can do to a person’s life, as well as the ways in which our society still ignores and even condones it." When younger, she found an anti-abuse network on MySpace where the stories of other victims/survivors and the many pages of statistics about different kinds of abuse helped her find her mission in life. Mandy writes, "More than anything, I enjoy helping victims/survivors of abuse in their path to healing. I have always said I would undo the abuse and its effects in a heartbeat, but I am grateful for the opportunity God gave me to use my experience. I grew up hearing that there's a silver lining to every cloud and I used to think 'not this one.' In time, I realized 'not this one yet.'" She goes on to say, "If I had never had to experience the undeserved attentions of classmates, my life might have been normal. I might have gotten the career in architecture that I've always dreamed of, but I would not be a part of the fight against abuse because I would know nothing about it. That's my silver lining."