The R.A.P.E. Foundation
Recovery Advocacy Prevention Education
About Us
Namid, Photo by Uno Mundo Photography
The R.A.P.E. Foundation was founded by Namid, a rape and incest survivor. Due to legal and security reasons, she goes by her pen name: the Cheyenne Indian name of Namid, which means Star Dancer.
Namid survived 7 years of sexual abuse at the hands of her father.
As she grew up, Namid found herself in abusive relationship after abusive relation, simply perpetuating the cycle she had learned as a young child. She was sexually and verbally abused in several relationships throughout her late teens and early twenties.
On October 10, 2004, she was raped by someone she knew. That rape resulted in a pregnancy. Scared, alone, and living over 400 miles away from her family, Namid faced obstacles and decisions that she never thought she would ever encounter.
Upon learning of her pregnancy, Namid realized that this assault had a greater purpose. She knew there was meaning behind it, although she couldn't quite figure out yet what "it" was.
She immediately got herself in private and group counseling to help heal from all the trauma. As she went along through her therapy, the other women in her group encouraged Namid to become a rape counselor.
As the years went by she wrote her book, To Dance Amongst The Stars, as a therapeutic medium, and also a way to use her own life as an example and to provide hope for other survivors.
As she continued to write, talk and encounter new people, she heard repeatedly that she needed to do some form of rape advocacy work. It wasn't until about 2 and a half years after the rape, when Namid had a long conversation with her fiancée that she decided to leave the comfort of her well-established career, and to start up The R.A.P.E. Foundation.