INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY FROM RBRW CREATOR JACQUELYN ALUOTTO

This is a very personal and honest blog for me. People always ask me why I make documentaries on the issues I do and where my passion comes from. I never really answer all the aspects of that question. I always say because I want to make a difference in the world and help people. Help people break the cycle of abuse, violence, poverty, ignorance etc... All of this is true but the reason behind that is as a young girl I watched my young Mom never really love herself and see how wonderful she is because she was abused. I watch my Mom now and sometimes I get frustrated as to how she doesn’t know what a kind and special, beautiful person she is. My Mom has endured so much and she could have been a bitter hateful woman but instead she is so compassionate. She is just only hard on herself. She is her worst enemy. As a daughter of course this has always hurt me because I love my mom so much and her happiness is important to me. I have always wondered if people were not abused what they would turn out to be. Or if abused victims had received the proper help, care, and counseling how they could become empowered. I have learned through my films and my life with my family and being an activist that helping is healing. Well at least it is for me and so many others. I have learnt, seen, and felt; that in the shelters and safe havens that I film in that if you give victims the proper care, tools, counseling, and support people will become empowered and free. Free from a mind that they deserve nothing and cannot escape a past that haunts them: that there is so much more of the world for them. That love really does exist and being beaten on emotionally and physically among other things is not love and not their fault: that they and we all deserve as human not to exist but to live. To thrive, laugh, cry, and cherish life because it is a gift. We are all a gift. I have learned that I feel comfortable in shelters with these women and children. I admire that they are trying to survive in a world that for some reason is afraid of the power they posses and has done everything to strip them of it and yet they are still here and still trying. They are still strong, beautiful, and powerful. I sit in awe and want to cry sometimes when the children and teens talk about being raped and beaten. That a 10 year old little girl can become a drug addict to numb herself because she was being prostituted out since she was four years old. But yet she will give me a picture she has colored because she wants me to have a gift. After all they have been through they still have so much love in them. It amazes me. It is my inspiration and I hope it always is. What seems to be the worst for these victims is no one believes them or validates what has happened to them except these Safe Havens. Shelters and Safe Havens are crucial to our existence. I think what has happened to this world is pure INSANITY. Civilization happened a long time ago so why are we still acting like savages. One reason is no one does validate breaking a cycle so it will stop from the next generation. Instead we have perpetuated one. I have learned of filming, volunteering and being in shelters and safe havens for ten years. We can all break the cycle of violence, abuse, ignorance, rape etc. It is not easy but with love, support and the proper tools it is happening all over the world and it is beautiful. It inspires me every day. It is what keeps me going as a human activist to evoke change. To demand it. Humanity is the most important thing in this world. Without it we will not survive. I ask everyone not just women because the men in my life are amazing and show me love every day. Give love and compassion to one another. Love is the greatest gift we can give to each other and ourselves. In this world we value things over people. It is so sad and we are cheating ourselves. My fiancés does not have a lot of money but the love he shows me is priceless and I would not give that up for all the money in the world. When you have unconditional love it restores your soul. My wish is that we can all find that love for each other and ourselves. Helping is healing and that passion in me is my prayer every day. I hope more and more people join me on this journey. A WORLD THAT HAS LOST HUMANITY IS A WORLD AT WAR -JACQUELYN ALUOTTO