This is my Story

Written by Karen J


This is My Story

(And I have to stick to it, I don’t want to, but that isrepparttar way it is)

I am currently in Recovery from Drug Addiction. I have been clean now for nearly eight years. I relapsed on my drug of choice-cocaine-when my mother died in 1993; a year after my son was born. Before that, I was literally rescued from years of heinous sexual and physical abuse, forced prostitution and drugs, by being arrested and sent to prison in 1990.

Atrepparttar 132683 age of 11, a “family friend” began brutally sodomizing my 9 year old brother. I have always been very intelligent, reading medical encyclopedias, journals, ECT. So, even at that young age, I knew that my body could handle what this sick pedophile was doing to my younger brother, more than his body could. He only got a hold of my brother three times and then I made him notice me. Some times I hated myself for wishing he would go hurt some other family’s kids. Why us? This abuse lasted for several months. He raped and sodomized me with his penis and a Ban roll-on deodorant bottle. He forced my brother and I to perform oral sex on each other in front of him and he also brutally raped and sodomized his nieces, nephews and children.

I joined a local Police Explores post a year later because I wanted to help people. When I turned torepparttar 132684 Assistant Leader ofrepparttar 132685 troop, a patrolman withrepparttar 132686 local police department, I told him everything that had happened to me. He offered me mixed drinks, took me to his house, seduced me and performed oral sex on me. I didn’t mind since it didn’t hurt-he did bring me great pleasure and that made it “okay”. The man that had hurt my brother and I was not prosecuted and I was “turned out” for child pornography and prostitution torepparttar 132687 cops in that little, North Florida, “Good ole boy” town. For years I had to watch pornography to learn how to please these “local heroes”. I was pleasuring men who had daughters older than me. But, I figured that since they weren’t hurting me likerepparttar 132688 guy that hurt my brother and they were training me to be a cop, it was okay. This is when I started smoking marijuana and snorting cocaine and drinking heavily.

I never experienced any real dating. I didn’t have a prom. I dropped out of Junior High School atrepparttar 132689 age of 15, got my GED and went to Junior College on financial aid. I was a “functional addict”, until I got my first real boyfriend. He was three month younger than I was, in college early like me and he was Cute. To make a long story bearable- I had to “service” his brother, his cousin, his father, at this guy own whim. He started beating me brutally and I went torepparttar 132690 police (before there were any domestic violence laws) they would force me to have sex and deliver me back to my boyfriend. Then I would be beaten again.

After dropping out of college, one evening I was working as a cashier. I came to our little trailer that his parents had bought for him and settled down onrepparttar 132691 couch. I wanted to smoke a joint, take a hot bath, eat dinner and go to sleep. This guy and his brother are doing something I had never seen before-smoking some stuff that stank. The guy tries to plead and wheedle me into smoking “crack”. I had remembered about an up coming basketball player named Len Bias, whose heart exploded from that stuff during a practice, I didn’t want it, no part of it. I was scared. Inrepparttar 132692 first time in our relationship, he beat me with a wire hanger (a pimp stick, as he called it) and I still refused. He skippedrepparttar 132693 other tortures and put a pistol to my temple and said, “Smoke or die Bitch!” I smoked and I was hooked. He prostituted me and gave me just enough o keep me hooked and around. He forced me to steal and forge checks, alter money orders, or facerepparttar 132694 alternative of being brutally sodomized by him. Wee my choice was pretty clear. I was convinced that this lunatic would also carry out a threat of killing my elderly parents if I left him. And for four long years I suffered abuses that no human or animal should ever have to endure.

Social Program: Management & Evaluation

Written by Timothy Farrell, PhD


NGO PROGRAM ACCOUNTABILITY INCREASING PARTICIPATION THROUGH ACCOUNTABILITY AND SUSTAINABILITY

Timothy Farrell, PHD faroglobal, inc. Guatemala City, Guatemala

October 2001 Introduction NGO Program- and Project Accountability are acknowledged as being necessary – but often as an unavoidable burden – to NGO operations. Usually “accountability” is thought of as an upward response to oversight as with to Donors or Boards of Directors, and most frequently is thought of in financial terms as inrepparttar case of audits, unit costs, or numbers of people benefiting from a project or activity. Local and national governments also occasionally request such summary information where NGOs operate.

These summary reports are valuable and useful torepparttar 132681 intended audience for a variety of accounting, sponsorship and public relations purposes and are intended to support corporate sustainability. Indeed, without a “record of accomplishment”, it is often difficult for an NGO to enter a new country or new region where local control and autonomy is high. Figure 1 provides a generalized view ofrepparttar 132682 primary distribution of summary reports.

Figure 1Generalized “Standard” Accountability Report Distribution

Well-informed and perceptive program managers, onrepparttar 132683 other hand, are aware thatrepparttar 132684 concept of accountability is far broader, more inclusive and more useful than upward or even lateral reporting. They acknowledge that for program purposes, accountability translates easily into evaluation, planning, program participation and sustainability. Accountability and Stakeholders The dictionary defines “accountable or accountability” in two ways:

1. Responsible: responsible to somebody else or to others, or responsible for something 2. Able to be explained: capable of being explained (formal)

Compare this withrepparttar 132685 definition of “accounting”:

Accounting: bookkeeping:repparttar 132686 activity, practice, or profession of maintaining and checkingrepparttar 132687 business records of an individual or organization and preparing forms and reports for tax or other financial purposes

These are clearly two very different words and have vastly different meanings. Accountability can certainly include accounting, but it is noteworthy that accounting deals with finances, while “accountability” simply refers to responsibility “to somebody else or to others” for “something”, and that it be capable of being explained.

These differences should affect how we perceive and behave with respect torepparttar 132688 concept of accountability:

·To whom are we responsible? ·For what are we responsible?

Stakeholders, classically defined by M. Q. Patton (1986:43), are:

“…people who have a stake – a vested interest – in evaluation findings. For any evaluating there are multiple stakeholders: program funders, staff, administrators, clients, and others with a direct or even indirect, interest in program effectiveness.”

This is a broad and general definition is somehow unsatisfactory for evaluation purposes because except for one reference to “clients”, this is upward looking. If you compare it to Figure 1 onrepparttar 132689 previous page, you will see that these “stakeholders” are all represented inrepparttar 132690 “traffic circle or roundabout” as separate “roads” radiating fromrepparttar 132691 “hub” or Program Manager.

The “client” remains undefined in Patton’s definition and unrepresented in Figure 1. Who, then, isrepparttar 132692 client and what roads of information pathways are available to him?

Fortunately, Patton goes on to make a very important point about stakeholders:

Stakeholders are decision makers and information users who have questions about a program.

By any definition,repparttar 132693 people who we serve are decision makers and information users, and this applies to evenrepparttar 132694 most “passive beneficiaries” , say, those who simply receive direct donations such as food or medical assistance. .

Regardless of whether or not we are talking about “clients” or “beneficiaries” and sustainable vs. unsustainable program and project activities, we do need to talk about “responsibility and accountability with respect torepparttar 132695 people who we serve.

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