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Celebrating 10 years of Support!
May 22, 1999-May 22, 2009
Message from Dr. Christine Hatchard, Founder/Director of Making Daughters Safe Again
I would like to thank everyone who has supported my work with Making Daughters Safe Again (MDSA) over the past 10 years. I began MDSA as an undergraduate student in Psychology with the support of mentors and peers, and continue my work with the support of colleagues, students, family, and friends. I would also like to thank the hundreds of survivors of mother-daughter sexual abuse (mdsa) whom I've had the privilege to meet, with special recognition to the dedicated survivors who are writing chapters for the MDSA book and who participated in the documentary. The passion of these women truly fuels my own, and make my work more worthwhile than I could possibly express.
When I founded Making Daughters Safe Again in 1999, typing "mother-daughter sexual abuse" into a search engine would mainly result in illicit web sites that were triggering and invalidating to survivors of mother-daughter sexual abuse (mdsa), who were already living (and continue to live) with the trauma and isolation of this form of abuse. My simple mission was to provide mdsa survivors with a forum through which to find information and support - essentially a place to be safe. Although through the years, the mission of the organization has been expanded to include educating the general public and mental health care professionals, MDSA is, and always has been, about its members - the courageous survivors who strive to be heard and to be healed.
I look forward to continuing to serve the mdsa survivor community, and meeting many more milestones during our next decade!
- Christine Hatchard, Psy.D.
What Making Daughters Safe Again means to me...
The very existence of MDSA as an organization makes society confront the reality that this type of abuse does occur. In addition, it provides a safe place for me to share my experiences with other survivors, and to obtain the support and validation which reinforces that I am not alone. MDSA provides a forum where I can take what I thought was my greatest shame -- and turn it into an asset. For no one can reach an mdsa survivor like another mdsa survivor can. - MDSA Member
Before joining MDSA I was completely isolated from other survivors of mother daughter incest. I was convinced I'd never meet another person like me. After the initial shock of meeting other mdsa survivors wore off, I began to feel the validation and support that I'd looked for my entire life. I have a support system now, a new family of my choosing. MDSA changed my life, and I'm so grateful this organization exists. - Gaela
Even though I had considered myself pretty much recovered from incest, I had never knowingly met another woman sexually abused by her mother. I must say that now meeting many other fine women who also share this tragedy, I find joy in our power, our hopes, our recoveries and the perseverances we all bring forth. - Ann-Marie, MDSA Member
Check back soon for more contributions!