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In Reply to: Re: scholarship fund posted by Acheick on October 21, 2002 at 20:42:25:
It is clear that most of us feel the need to help those among us (particularly the younger ones) land on their feet and start a more normal life when they get out of the fam. It is heartbreaking to hear of stories of exmems struggling to eke out a living as the whole cultic experience has severely handicapped them for life. Leaving the fam presents a big threat to a current member's sense of security, and jumping ship can be extrememly scary. This is especially true for those in the west whose cultures do not provide for an automatic support system via family and friends, less prevalent in the east whose cultures do (the real family will invariably take you back no matter how bad you've been). Those of us that have managed to rise above it all share a common trait, and that is we all felt at some point in our life EMPOWERED TO TAKE CONTROL, and that's what turned our life around.
I have a dream (vision perhaps?) I'd like to share with this forum: to set up a foundation of some sort for processing ex-members (from cog to begin with but not limited to) with the primary goal of helping them identify their skills set and how they can become productive members of society. Sort of a halfway house/ formal support system. Hook them up with the appropriate resources, govt or non-govt agencies etc. all in order for them to integrate back into the real world. Funding can initially come from us, the exmem community and the families (grandparents,etc) of fresh and would-be defectees. The office can employ exmems to process exmems. Who better will relate to us but us (though if you read other ex-cultists testimonies, we seem to be all in the same boat). It's still germinating in my mind and I hesitated to post it but thought you guys might help me flesh it out. What do think? Feel free to disagree and give me a reality check on my dream.
