Joyful Heart in the News

SHAPE's Women Who Shape the World: Meet the Top 8 Women Who Care

November 2010
Shape Magazine
By
Alice Oglethorpe


Mariska Hargitay for the Joyful Heart Foundation

Mariska Hargitay: Turning victims into survivors

To prepare for her role as a sex crimes detective on Law & Order: SVU, Mariska Hargitay trained as a rape crisis advocate. "Since being on Law & Order, I've gotten thousands of emails from women disclosing their stories," she says. "Reading about the shame they experience opened my eyes."

Changing the world: the Joyful Heart Foundation

In the six years since it started, the Joyful Heart Foundation has sent more than 5,000 women and children on therapeutic programs which combine yoga, meditation, massage, journaling, even swimming with dolphins. "If something terrible has happened to you, you can find your way back to a life of hope and possibility," says Mariska Hargitay.

What Mariska Hargitay wants you to know:

This year, 1.3 million women will be assaulted by a partner. "It takes courage to ask, but there is help: 24 hours a day at the National Domestic Violence Hotline (800-799-7233) or National Sexual Assault Hotline (800-656-4673)."

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