In her own words…

Naomi Johnson, relating her own story of her time at Mercy. 

[link to 6PR Radio media player]

From http://nautblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/in-her-own-words.html ]]> http://www.mercysurvivors.com/2008/08/07/in-her-own-words/feed/ 0 http://www.mercysurvivors.com/2008/08/07/mercy-girls/ http://www.mercysurvivors.com/2008/08/07/mercy-girls/#comments Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:03:35 +0000 admin http://mercysurvivors.com/?p=24

The original video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnxtNLo2F2E&e was removed.

With thanks to the Sydney Morning Herald and usernames ‘hillsongchurch’ and ‘butterflysarahmac’ on youtube.com

This video appears in its original form here http://www.smh.com.au/multimedia/2008/national/mercy-ministries/start.html

An excerpt from a letter recieved from television program Today Tonight on March 20th 2008:

In the days since Today Tonight did a story on Mercy Ministries, we have been inundated with responses, so much so it’s raised serious questions about the figures we received from Mercy Ministries claiming to be the total number of girls who graduated and “failed”.

Executive Director of Mercy Ministries Peter Irvine claimed since the organisation began in 2000, 96 women had graduated, 6 failed and only 2 had come forward to complain… Since our program aired, a greater number of women have since contacted our program citing mistreatment by Mercy Ministries.

These girls did not receive professional treatment whilst in the care of MM, they were denied such help and instead were put in the care of people whose only training was from an in-house program – a far cry from the medically based expertise needed to treat serious problems of sexual abuse, drug addiction, and psychological trauma. It also contradicts the program guidelines outlined on the website. Even the website acknowledges that such conditions need professional help…

Kind regards,
Marguerite McKinnon
Journalist Today Tonight