-Says she’s passionate about empowering victims of abuse
EVERY girl dreams of her Prince Charming who would one day ride into her life and sweep her off her feet; and Sukhree Budhram was no different. So, at the tender age of 15 years, when she fell in love with the prince of her dreams, she thought that her life would read “happy ever after”. Instead, her dream turned out like that of so many women — to be a nightmare — and her reality became broken dreams and a broken heart.
But her spirit was unassailable, and the way she turned her life around and found the courage to break the silence of her torturous years of abuse living with an alcoholic is well documented in her riveting publication “Breakout”, a book that assumed a dynamic of its own, grabbing international attention.
The sad and unpalatable truth is that many men — after their mothers have nurtured them before and after birth, and struggled in myriad ways to bring them to the point of adulthood; after their wives have loved them, cared for them and borne their children — have used their strengths to diminish these very women.

They espouse the rum bottle and other women, then return home to bully their hapless families.  Many males in the society are convinced that it is proof of their virility to have many women, and even worse, to father as many children as they can manage.  But I use the word “father” in error there.  Even dogs procreate, but fathering embodies a spectrum of responsibility of which procreation is merely incidental (in most cases) to the process of the very demanding but absolutely rewarding commitment of creating a complete person, healthy in body, mind and soul.
Sukhree garnered strength to not only confront her own demons and change her life around; she has charted a course whereby her indomitable will and courage have galvanized a support base which is prepared to join with her on a journey to create a pathway for other abused women to become empowered, and to discover their own identity and strengths enough that, like she has done, they also can break out of abusive situations and discover a world of light, love, and even happiness.
CADVA, INC. is the brainchild of someone who refused to remain a victim. Sukree Boodram eventually changed her status by empowerment and perseverance, becoming a survivor.  Using her own personal journey through healing and recovery, she has committed to helping others to “Break their Silence” and create healthier choices, and to change their status and become empowered survivors. The hope is that each victim becomes empowered to feel they deserve better treatment from the one person who claims to have loved them.
CADVA (Caribbean Domestic Violence Organization) INC. was founded by a woman who refused to be anyone’s victim. The organization was launched globally on February 25, 2012 in Florida, USA.
This organization is led by individuals with a passion for this cause, whose primary purpose is to build public awareness, educate, develop and teach a sense of self-worth and self-respect, and to empower individuals by providing counselling, training and other related services to victims of abuse and their families. All employees, directors and agents of CADVA, INC. will be reviewed and approved by the board of directors and appointed trustees. The character of this organization will be recognized as one which provides unselfish support to victims and their families.
CADVA, INC. is focusing initially in the US and Caribbean, where large pockets of cultural demographics exist in communities, and domestic violence is not openly discussed, or help not easily found. Most of these areas already have existing agencies that provide services to victims and their families.  However, the outreach between those agencies and the community needs reinforcement. CADVA, INC. will partner with agencies already existing to bring help to victims and their families.
With help from donations, funding, charitable contributions, fund-raising events and partners, CADVA, INC. will be able to bring these sessions to communities that desperately need them. We can no longer look at this issue from a bird’s eye view, or from a macro-level. We have to address it from the ground, or micro-level, if we want to see any change in this epidemic. CADVA, INC. will be operating from the ground level.

Sukhree is a certified accountant who has a Bachelors degree in Accounting and a Masters degree in Business.  She is, simultaneously to all her other activities, continuing her studies.
After 21 years of abuse, Sukhree sought help because, walking away from the man she loved – her husband and the father of her children — was more difficult than she had ever imagined; but she finally garnered the requisite courage, and with the help and support of loving relatives and friends, as well as the guidance from a 12-step anonymous support group for the families of alcoholics, she finally broke the binding ties to her husband and her marriage.
Sukhree Budhram’s accounting career began as an Accounts Payable Clerk for Holiday RV Superstores, Inc in Orlando, Florida in 1989, before she was appointed Regional Controller for Sunterra Resorts, Inc, Orlando, Florida, responsible for the Eastern US and Caribbean region.  Today, she is a Senior Finance Manager with Starwood Vacation Ownership, Orlando, Florida, a division of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide
How does anyone plumb the depths of a woman’s heart?  How does anyone understand the proclivity of a woman to make serious mistakes in choosing a life partner; or to gauge the emotional neediness, quite apart from the practical socio-economic considerations, that makes her remain in an abusive relationship even when that relationship threatens her sanity, and even her very life?
Sukhree Budhram refused to become a victim.  Her book, “Breakout”, tells her story.   At the launch of the book at the Pegasus hotel, a screening of a televised interview as she related her ordeal during her long years in an abusive marriage riveted the audience.
Following is Sukhree’s ten-point steps to recovery:

1    Acknowledging that I deserve to be treated better.
2. I stopped blaming myself for the abuse.
3. I held on to a Higher Power, strengthening my faith.
4. I told someone I trusted. I broke my silence.
5. I started counselling and leaned on others.
6. I stopped protecting the abuser and hiding the abuse.
7. I faced my fear of the unknown, not ashamed any longer.
8. I was no longer in denial about being abused.
9. I am sharing my courage and strength with others.
10. I focus on myself physically, emotionally, spiritually.

Men are the bedrock of homes, societies, and countries. The father of a household is the crucible around which the family revolves, and the anchor that holds the family together.  There is no substitute for the love and support of a caring father, not even a mother’s love.
Children hero-worship fathers, while mothers are loved, perhaps extremely so, but not with that incandescent radiance in the heart and soul as having a special bond with one’s father.
When a husband and father abdicates or subverts his responsibilities to his family, for whatever reason, he eradicates the very premise of solidity on which sound societies are built.
Even more heinous are the abusers and sexual predators of the society. Some even prey on their own helpless children – an act of absolute betrayal worthy of castration.

There are no single mothers.  There are only recalcitrant fathers who create the single-parent status of many families.
Within the institutional landscape, whether in schools, workplaces, places of worship, service institutions, etc., the harassment of women by males in a dominant position is a given – even by some males highly respected in the wider society, until a single incident blows their covert activities open to the public.
Professional women are harassed in myriads of ways – whether because their male counterparts feel threatened; whether they see women as fair game, especially single women, most of whom would prefer to just do their jobs within a pleasant but professional milieu; or whether they are perceived to have invaded a male “preserve” and need to be kept “in their right place,” which is secondary to the superior male of the species.
But even worse are female protagonists who, maybe out of envy, prejudice, or merely a nasty disposition, seek to diminish members of their own gender.  There is nothing more vicious and destructive than rumour-mongering. It spreads the destructive stories, even though it disregards the truth.  Sadly, many males are also party to rumour-mongering.
The Guyana branch of the Sukhree Budhram foundation, CADVA, will be launched at a special complimentary luncheon buffet at the Pegasus Hotel on Wednesday March 1, 2012.