By Miriam Wilke.
“No woman will ever be turned away.”
With this powerful statement Jovita explained the concept of Thistle Farms to me. Thistle Farms is, together with The Women of Magdalene, a two-year recovery program for female survivors of domestic, sexual or substance abuse, human trafficking, and prostitution. The residential community was founded by Becca Stevens, an Episcopal priest and survivor herself, in 1997. Started in the basement of a church with only five women, Thistle Farms is now helping women worldwide to start a new life. Jovita is one of them.
Nineteen months ago, she had left everything in her hometown Fort Worth, Texas, behind in order to join the program and finally recover from her past. Jovita told me that The Women of Magdalene residential site currently has four houses for the surviving women to live and grow in for free. All expenses are paid for them over the course of their recovery program, no matter if they are medical bills, therapy, groceries, cooking classes, business courses, or anything else they need to get back on track. After the two years of recovery, the women can participate in a formal graduation, symbolizing their growth over time and highlighting the fact that they are now ready to start living on their own again.
However, with an astonishing success rate of 73% of all women who graduate without experiencing a relapse in behavior, the waiting lists for the Thistle Farm recovery program are high: While the houses currently only accommodate 30 women, the waiting list receives roughly 100 women every day. Even though the program and the residential site are constantly expanding, the money only comes from donations and the hand-made products that are sold in the shop and online. Since Thistle Farms is not government funded, the women rely on selling candles, gift cards crafted from hand-made paper, soaps, jewelry, and many other things that are either made in Nashville or in one of the sister programs across the world.
“I am not a victim. I am a survivor.”
Besides Jovita, I was lucky enough to talk to another survivor and participant of the Thistle Farm program: Trish Ethridge. Trish had initially entered the program in 2000 after being arrested for drug abuse. When she stood in court, she begged the District Attorney to send her to jail, which in her opinion was the only way to escape her drug addiction. But he had something else in mind, stating that she really needed help and thus introduced her to Thistle Farms. After completing the two year program, Trish remained drug-free for ten years. She was also able to rebuild her family relationships until a routine surgery where she was given narcotics triggered her old behavior. She became a drug addict again, got abused by her new boyfriend and was forced to prostitute herself in order to pay for her drugs. Trish returned to Thistle Farms in January and started working in the Thistle Stop Café as a waitress and cashier.
Meeting these women was an emotional and touching moment for all of us not only because it made us appreciate what we have even more but also because we got to experience this powerful program and the way these women grow and live together. It is clearly a program by women for women and we are humbled by the strength of them.
We like to thank Jovita and Trish for sharing their stories with us and for showing us love and compassion.
Love heals.
For more information please visit: http://www.thistlestopcafe.org
Religions in the US 