Peace on Earth – One battered woman at a time Sometimes, when the dream of world peace seems like more than you or I will ever be able to get our arms around, it’s important to remember the old adage: Think globally, but act locally. Right here in our own community, families are at war. Men are assaulting their wives and girlfriends. And children, if not victims of physical abuse, are certainly witnesses to the horror. It’s tempting to imagine this as someone else’s problem, but it would be untrue: domestic violence knows no demographic barrier. Women flee homes in Great Falls and Adams-Morgan and Shaw just the same, and when they arrive on our doorstep, often times in the middle of the night, they all bleed red. At the House of Imagene, our approach to domestic violence is not a militant one. We do not counsel women to leave their husbands or to take any retaliatory action. What we do do is provide a vital—often lifesaving—escape from imminent danger. We offer a clean bed, warm meals, a change of clothes, and a caring environment so that a battered woman has a chance to catch her breath, to heal, and to regroup. Out of harm’s way, she can then assess her future calmly with the help of free, on-site, para-professional counseling. The plans these women make may differ, but our goal is always the same: to help victims of domestic violence rebuild lives in which the House of Imagene is a fond but distant memory.