Later this month, she will travel to areas in South Africa to help religious leaders there begin addressing the problem of abuse in that country.
The member of South Bay Community Covenant Church will travel with two other women to South Africa from August 27 to September 12 and speak in the cities of Johannesburg and Pietermaritzburg. The three women will make their trip under the umbrella group Desert Rivers International with offices in Dallas, Texas, to present the seminar, “Free to Go, Releasing the Authentic Self.”
Each woman will present one of three segments included in the seminar: The Wounded Child, The Angry Child, and The Assaulted Child. DeVaughn, a victim of incest that led to the birth of her son, will speak on the third segment.
DeVaughn says she wants people to admit the problem exists and that childhood abuse affects women in their adult lives. She also wants people to know that healing can come. “So often we only see where we are at,” she says.
The audience primarily will be pastors, their wives and church lay leaders. “We hope to raise awareness so they can begin to talk about it in their churches,” says DeVaughn. “That’s my biggest goal.”
That was the result of a seminar the women presented in Venezuela last year. “The pastors there said afterwards that they would never be the same and they would take it to their congregations,” DeVaughn recalls. “That’s all I can hope for.”
The churches she will visit in South Africa are comprised of people with a heritage rooted in India, says DeVaughn. Indian/Asians make up about 2.5 percent of the population, according to the country’s 2001 census.
The problem of childhood abuse is widespread in the country, she says. “There is so much that happens with children in South Africa. For the most part, it’s not addressed.”
The group received the invitation after a woman from South Africa attended a seminar in Dallas. “We need this so badly,” DeVaughn quotes the woman as saying.
