Wyoming native helps acid attack victims worldwide
The attacks are the intentional throwing of acid or a similar corrosive into a person's face, for the purpose of permanently disfiguring, maiming, blinding or killing them.
Acid attacks occur most often in parts of Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Though numbers are still small, such attacks are being reported with increased frequency in Columbia and even in the United States. Most assailants are men. Most acid attack victims are women and children.
When Angie Vredeveld, a Clifton-based psychologist who works primarily with immigrants and refugees, first looked into the face of a Ugandan acid attack survivor, she didn't turn away.
Instead, the Wyoming High School and Miami University graduate engaged. Today, Vredeveld, 37, is founding director of a nonprofit trying help acid attack survivors worldwide through advocacy and fundraising and with medical supplies and treatment.
"I've had the opportunity to walk into a tiny home and talk to someone who sitting on a bed who is afraid to leave her house," she said. "With that good fortune comes the responsibility to tell people that it is happening. I have to bear witness in some way."
She helped her Ugandan patient receive $500,000 worth of pro bono surgery in Los Angeles. Then Vredeveld met another survivor, Hanifa Nakiryowa, 34, a Ugandan working now on a master's degree at the University of Pittsburgh. She is the other founding director of the nonprofit Center for Rehabilitation of Survivors of Acid and Burns Violence (CERESAV).
"When I started to explain the issues to Angie, she said, `I want to be involved.' She has proven to be someone who knows how to truly walk in another person's shoes," said Nakiryowa, who will be in Greater Cincinnati next week for a series of public and private benefits.
Acid attack survivor thrives in Cincinnati
The nonprofit teamed up with change.org on a petition drive calling for Uganda's parliament and president to approve and sign into law the Toxic Chemicals Prohibition and Control Bill 2015, which it did late last year. Uganda pledged to destroy its stockpile of chemical weapon agents and prevent their re-emergence into society.
Vredeveld is the daughter of Rose and George Vredeveld. He retired in 2012 after 35 years as founding director of the University of Cincinnati Economics Center.
Angie Vredeveld describes how her life experiences and education – she has a doctoral degree in psychology from Indiana State University – added up to lead her into this work.
Question: So how did you get from Wyoming, Ohio, to Uganda?
Answer: "A big part of it was I was in the Netherlands for a year as a kid. I was 11. I went to an international school and had classmates from Sweden, Japan, Zimbabwe and all over. You learn there is no right or wrong way. Just to know the same truths that are the norm in the U.S. don't apply to other places. In seventh, eighth, ninth and 11th grade, I went to Bulgaria with my dad."
Q: What was process that got you involved with acid attack survivors?
A: "I was in Uganda in 2014 volunteering at a small non-governmental organization. It provided services to refugees. I was teaching their staff members what was post-traumatic stress disorder – basic things. They asked me to make a couple of home visits, and one of them was to Christine, who was an acid attack survivor who hadn't left her home in over two years. I worked with her for eight weeks. She asked me to help her get a surgery. I had no idea what I was doing. Once I got back I was able to connect her to Grossman Burn Foundation in Los Angeles."
Q: How did you meet Hanifa?
A: "She and Christine were in the hospital together. They were both attacked in 2011. Hanifa sent me a Facebook message in 2014 thanking me for what I'd done for Christine. She mentioned her organization. We started talking about her vision for the organization."
Q: Can you describe your first encounter with disfiguration and the related physical and mental health issues of acid attacks?
A: "On a baseline, the extreme poverty I saw there in 2014 was more extreme than anything I'd seen in my three previous visits to Sub-Saharan Africa. For me, the hardest part is seeing people everywhere with so few resources and feeling guilty and disgusted with the amount of money I spend. I felt very uncomfortable from a moral perspective. I was disappointed in myself for allowing myself to live the standard life in the U.S. and was not actively trying to be part of the solution for them. They clearly needed it and were clearly asking for it. So I had to respond. Seeing someone who is so disfigured facially, that was a mixture of difficult and intrigue, intellectually asking why and how did that happen."
Q: What's your pitch?
A: "We have a responsibility as Americans who are the wealthiest in the world. It's a travesty that we wouldn't share some of those resources with other people, and I am not talking about a $10 bill. They are our brothers and sisters. They need help. … We are all sort of given this opportunity to be in a physical body and have life here for a while. Some of us were popped down in one place in the world and others were popped down in other places that aren't so nice. When you're sitting on a concrete floor and listening to somebody's story, and their kids are coming in and out, there is so little distinction. It's just another human sitting next to you. More than that, it's a spirit sitting next to you."
IF YOU GO
The Center for Rehabilitation of Survivors of Avid and Burns Violence USA will hold a series of public events within the next week.
Tuesday, Aug. 16, 6-7:30 p.m., Empowering Women, First Unitarian Church, 536 Linton Street, Avondale (co-hosted by Women's City Club).
Wednesday, Aug. 17, 6-7:30 p.m., Making a Difference in Africa, St. John’s Unitarian Universalist Church, 320 Resor Ave., Clifton (co-hosted by Foreign Policy Leadership Council and African Professional Network).
MORE INFORMATION: http://ceresav.org/ceresav-usa/