Jileha (“Through the heart”), by means of its activities creates room for these women to reveal who they are, to be themselves, to find their own way toward expressing their hidden desires, emotions, feelings, needs, opinions and thoughts. They manage to escape the malicious stereotypes that come from the persistence of negative, stupid, would-be traditions that beat us down and also makes us slaves to those whom we love.   

I was once one of those women looking for the words with which to name the enormous emptiness that was growing in me from one day to the next. In all of the family happiness that came from that loving oppressor I was as lost as Alice in Wonderland, and the only bright light there was for me was my son.

Thanks to my belief that good exists, I got to know people who gave me a helping hand, who welcomed me among them, and who gave me a chance to reveal my deeply hidden self. As they say, “hope dies last”. Today I can say that all of the beautiful people in my life blazed a trail that is growing into a long road, not just for me, but also for those who want to walk it with me. As a member of Manushe and coordinator of the Jileha project, I say:  “Life belongs to all of us, so don’t deprive yourself of the beauty of a single fertile thought.”

Aurélia Balážová