MK forum

Thank you, Maire. Please keep reading, catching up, and commenting.

It is always good to hear from MKs who are just finding us and have a story to tell. Not good that there are so many stories to tell, and so MANY "missing years". But this is a good place to begin to process and heal, alongside others who do understand and believe you.

It's very good to hear your comments, Maire!
Keep posting and keep living in hope.
Yes, we hope for some closure soon.
Hope you connected with many friends...it probably did you all good!

Maire, the abuse in Panama was so well hidden that I was surprised when I learned at the beginning of this year that IHART would be investigating Panama. (I'm not sure what you were seeing that gave you the impression the post from dbarney was from 2010. The thread titled "How are we doing?" under Miscellaneous gives a synopsis of some of the significant dates along the journey we've been plodding along on.)

Anyway, yes, I was very surprised to see the Panama field come up. Over the years I'd heard rumors or reports of abuse in other countries like Bolivia and PNG, but not Panama.

Then I was told the abuse in Panama was harsh physical abuse. Now through your posts and mk chame's posts I am learning that much more went on there than the rest of us knew about. Horrible things. Things that were so bad you locked them up in your memory closet where they would stay hidden.

Thank you for your courage. We need MKs like you to speak out. Far too much pain was inflicted on way too many MKs in so many countries, over so many years. The knowledge of the magnitude of this is staggering to me .... so much, far too much. (Even one case of abuse is too much, but you know what I mean.)

The challenge of how to get the word out to other MKs is a huge one. I agree that there are a vast number of MKs who still don't even know about Fanda Eagles, GRACE, IHART or NTM's willingness to have abuse cases investigated. I believe many still think their story -- and their pain -- is unique, and they assume no one knows, no one cares, and no one would believe them. Many are estranged from their families. In some cases parents have chosen loyalty to the mission over the needs of their own children, so even if the parents know a bit about what is happening, they will not share this with their children because they are protecting the very organization which betrayed them.

MKs: please help us get the word out! Please help us insure that adult MKs are informed about the options now being made available to them! NTM has not employed an effective way of reaching these MKs. They are still going through the parents to attempt to reach the MKs, which in many cases is counterproductive.

There is so much more work to be done! We have come a long way, but this journey is far from finished. I hope we can find every MK who wants to participate in these investigations. It would be tragic to get this process all wrapped up only to find there are others who would have had something to say, if only they'd known about it.