Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) - 1001

Tonight's special guest is Nana Brazil from São Paulo, Brazil, a child abuse survivor and NAASCA family member who's been a regular in our SCAN radio talk show's chat room for several months. Now 52 years old, Nana is beginning her healing process using the ASCAA 12 Step program, and is joining us as a special guest tonight for the first time! Her father, an alpha male, was born in Italy and came to Brazil after the World War II. When 5 years old Nana's family re-located for 3 years to the USA, living in Wisconsin. There she suffered bullying in school. "Back in Brazil the first memory that I have is my mom entering my bedroom and catching my dad abusing me. My childhood broke apart." She and her brother witnessed terrible, violent fights. Her parents divorced when Nana was 16. "My mother never talked to me about what she saw. Actually any time that I tried to bring her any problem, the answer was that it was too much for her to handle. My father just wasn't there, ever. The law of the house was secrecy." Her childhood experiences opened the door for many adult problems, including "bad relationships, a 23 year abusive marriage, giving up of great opportunities, and a hard time to manage my financial situation, my business." Four years ago she was able to get out of her marriage with the help of Al-anon. "I went back to my mothers house, the same place of all the traumatic experiences. And that made all the memories come back. But with the memories came help and many doors of healing. Going back to Christianity was one of the doors. The other was finding the SCAN group." Nana concludes, "I want to build a good, joyful, productive life. And to help others to understand that there is hope and to find a path of recovery."