The Modern Women’s Foundation on Saturday opened an exhibition in Taipei aimed at drawing public attention to the stories of children who have witnessed domestic violence.
The exhibition, titled My Corner (我的小角落), features works that children and adolescents who have witnessed domestic violence created in art therapy sessions, exhibition curator Liu Mei-yu said.
Children who have witnessed violence often become “forgotten victims,” Liu said.
Although they have no scars on their bodies, the pain inside them often stays with them until they are adults, Liu added.
Alongside the children’s works, drawings inspired by the subject created by well-known illustrators, such as Bread Tree (麵包樹), Kim Pu (蒲冠東) and Chiu Yu-ching (邱宇晴), are also on display, Liu said.
While the foundation helps about 8,000 families experiencing domestic violence each year, it has found that many members of the public feel a distance between themselves and the subject, foundation chief executive Fan Kuo-yung (范國勇) said.
“In fact, [domestic violence] often happens around you and me, but it is difficult for us to see,” he said.
The exhibition was planned with this observation in mind, he said, adding that it aims to help the public better understand the issue.
The concept behind the exhibition is that everyone needs a “safe corner,” he said.
Home should be a place where people feel safe, but for many children, it is the source of their pain, the foundation said in a statement.
It hopes that the exhibition helps visitors understand the inner worlds of children who have witnessed domestic violence, and encourages them to provide victims with more support, it said.
Officials from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and the Ministry of the Interior, as well as representatives from several groups including the Taiwan Coalition Against Violence and Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation, attended the exhibition’s opening reception.
A total of 103,930 victims of domestic violence were reported in the nation last year, the foundation said, citing Ministry of Health and Welfare statistics.
Someone becomes a victim of domestic violence every five minutes on average, while an estimated 150,000 children every year “grow up in pain,” it said.
Since 2017, the foundation has served more than 200 children who have witnessed domestic violence, it said, adding that it has provided assistance in the form of teaching children to protect themselves and to follow a safety plan, and helping them to recognize their own emotions and learn positive ways of managing those emotions.
The exhibition is held at the Bopiliao Historical Block in Wanhua District (萬華).
It is open daily from 10am to 6pm from Tuesday to Sunday, the foundation said.
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