KERSHAW, S.C. (CN2 NEWS) Battered But Not Broken, a non-profit that helps women of various backgrounds better their lives, is celebrating a ribbon cutting for its newest home in Lancaster County called Miriam’s House.
This home will provide shelter for women who have been incarcerated and who have suffered from drug, alcohol or violent crimes.
After two years a mission to help give women a second chance continues in Kershaw through Miriam’s House.
A name take from Moses sister in the Bible, like Miriam, this home is second chance.
Battered But Not Broken Director, Le Tanya Williams says, “Miriam’s House specifically houses up to five women comfortably. So women don’t have to make the choice, they don’t have to be made the choice to go back to their old places or environments.”
Since June 2009 Battered But Not Broken has been able to help more than 250 women and their families. These leaders say that when you help just one woman, there are so many people that rally behind her.
Sherri Shoemaker, Miriam’s House’s House Mom says, “I have re-built relationships with my kids and my grandkids you know and I’m trying to make up for… I can’t change the things in the past, but I can definitely thanks to this program, make a better future you know, and I can just be the best GG that I can be — that’s what I’m looking for.”
Sherri Shoemaker came to Miriam’s House when it first opened late 2019. Since then the home has undergone renovations thanks to donors like Springs Close Lancaster and Home Depot. Now, officially celebrating its opening with the community, women continue to reflect on what this moment means.
Anna Pierce, a program graduate and now board member for Battered But Not Broken says, “What it means to me is that means help. Me that there’s women right just like me that can live a different life. It’s hope, hope in a better future, hope that they can be… that they don’t have to be labeled, live by the label that they had when they were growing up or whatever, whatever the case may be. You don’t have to live that way, you can live a different life.”
Le Tanya Williams says community support means everything.
“Getting the buy-in of the community that includes, churches, it includes just a variety of different people, different social economic backgrounds, that believe in the works that Battered But Not Broken do.”
In the video above, CN2’s Rachel Richardson is speaking with women who now have more hope.
