Emmy was 24 when she came to Canada from Holland on an exchange program for young farmers. With a degree in horticulture and a love of the outdoors, she was full of hope and anticipation. That hope was soon dashed when her physically abusive husband of two years threatened to kill her. Fearing for her life and the safety of her young daughter, she left.

Her self-esteem was further compromised in a second marriage to an emotionally-abusive man, with whom she had a son. When he told her after five years of marriage, “I would like to see you dead,” she gathered up her two children and went camping, staying on after the weekend at the campsite. He had her arrested for kidnapping, so to protect her children, she moved back home for another five years. “He told me if I took the kids without his permission, I would be in contempt of court,” she says. Years later, she learned the court order was valid for only 30 days.

By the winter of 2005, Emmy was suffering from severe depression and was encouraged by her psychiatrist to leave her husband.

“I didn’t have the income,” Emmy, an interior landscape designer at the time, says. “But I learned from my doctor I was eligible for subsidized housing. So I took the children to a women’s shelter and soon moved into my subsidized house.”

She remembers the day in court when she finally had a separation agreement: “After six hours, it was over,” she says. “All the threats... and I thought ‘Why did I stay so long?’”

The women’s shelter referred her to a self-employment training program funded by the Canadian Women’s Foundation. It was there she learned to empower herself.

Accustomed to putting herself down in the isolation of an abusive relationship, Emmy recalls that “in the first session, we had to say something positive about ourselves. I had a hard time finding even one, but by the end, when they asked for 50 positive things, I had no problem at all!”

Emmy had volunteered with Girl Guides for 22 years which gave her the courage to participate in an Outward Bound trip, even though she was the only woman there. “I learned quickly that I had more experience than any of the men. I had organized the food the way it should be and they were so impressed, I ended up steering the canoe! “

That gave me an idea. I can teach other women to canoe and help them gain confidence.” She brought up the idea and soon had a website and financing from the self -employment benefit program.

“My first trip was in February last year. I took people out on a winter camp. I had taken lots of trips with Girl Guides,” she says. “But for this one, I got paid!”

“Now, when bad things happen I know how to turn them into a positive,” she says. “The program was the best thing that ever happened to me. It helped me believe in myself.”