Domestic violence victims may be eligible for scholarships, grants & cosmetic surgery

Domestic violence victims go through physical and emotional pain. Most of these women and sometimes men too, need medical attention and counseling. But what happens once they leave their violent past and move on their own into society? One huge problem confronted by these victims is a monetary one. Most of these women depended financially on their abusive spouses. Out on their own, these victims have a hard time finding work and sometimes end up in another dominating abusive relationship.

There are a few organizations or companies that pitch in and offer help for domestic violence victims. The Allstate Foundation and The R.O.S.E Fund (Regaining One's Self Esteem), are just a couple of the organizations that offer services for victims. These organizations offer victims the tools to rebuild their lives, achieve self-sufficiency and regain their self-esteem. They do this by educating victims on how to manage their finances, offering grants and scholarship monies. The R.O.S.E Fund also offers facial reconstructive surgery.

To learn more about these particular organizations click on the links above. You can also search on the web for other organizations that can help you or someone you know that has lived through this horrible ordeal.

Woman Left Near Dead After Being Brutally Attacked by Two Homeless People

We at WomenOnGuard.com, decided to make our monthly product donation in support of Jen Hall, a woman who was brutally attacked by two homeless people on August 25, 2008. As you know WomenOnGuard.com donates self defense products to a different cause around the country each month.

On the South Side of Chicago, two homeless people brutally attacked Jen who was out celebrating her 36th birthday. She was repeatedly kicked in the head until she became unconscious. Most medical experts state that nine out of 10 people who experience the type of injuries that Jen did, usually end up brain dead and do not survive at all. Jen did survive. Unfortunately, she did not have medical coverage. She was 1 month away from being eligible for medical insurance through her new employer. Anyone wishing to donate or to check on Jen’s recovery can go to the website TheWalkingMiracle.com.

There has been much support from her family, friends and even the kindness of strangers. Fundraisers have been held and will continue to be held in hopes of alleviating some of the burden from the medical bills that Jen has incurred. We are donating self defense products to the cause, which will be sold at the fundraisers. All proceeds from the sale of these products will go into the charitable trust fund that has been set up for Jen to help offset some of the medical expenses. Jen has made great progress but has a long way to go.

Most women are unsure of where to purchase self defense products. Department stores don’t carry items such as these and gun shops are very intimidating to women. WomenOnGuard.com only carries non-lethal, self defense products. We don’t sell guns or knives on our website. We realize that sometimes when people are defending themselves with a gun, that same gun could actually be turned against them. In this case, it is better to be pepper sprayed or Tasered, than to be shot with a bullet from your own gun.

What You Need to Know About Pepper Spray

Pepper spray has been used by people for hundreds of years. Ancient armies would use it against their enemies. It's naturally powerful and is used for self defense by men and women till this day. Pepper sprays are non-lethal, self defense products and one of the most reasonably priced. A person can purchase pepper spray for as little as $8.25 on the internet.

The most popular pepper sprays are purchased in small 1/2 oz. or 3/4 oz. canisters, in order to conceal them in purses or pockets. The main ingredient in pepper spray is OC or oleoresin capsicum. The OC is derived from Cayenne peppers – some of the hottest peppers in the world. Some brands such as Mace, add extra ingredients to the sprays, such as tear gas. You will also find that some pepper sprays have 10% pepper in their canisters while others have 17% or more. Streetwise brand pepper spray is one of those brands that contains a higher percentage of OC. Some brands also have UV dye to invisibly mark an assailant!

Another important thing you need to know about pepper spray is that most are aerosols, so it is very important when you use them, to make sure you hold the product upright. Just as you would when using hairspray. There are of course some exceptions. A product called Guardian Angel Pepper Blaster, has a system other than that of aerosol pepper spray. In fact, Guardian Angel pepper spray is also very fast, 90 MPH burst, to be exact! It can be sprayed in any angle, not just up right. Since all of these brands are in spray form, you need to keep in mind as well, what environment it will be used in. If you use it outdoors in windy conditions, you might get spray back!

Spray back is an issue that has also been addressed by some manufacturers of pepper spray products. There are some solutions such as pepper foam or pepper gel, introduced to the market. These are heavier substances and therefore less likely to be affected by wind and therefore less spray back. Most popular brands carry these optional heavier pepper sprays. Your options are; liquid, foam, gel or fog.

Finally there is the consideration of concealment. Most pepper sprays have a key ring for convenience and are available in just plain canisters, injection molded hard cases or leatherette cases or holsters. Some however are disguised as other things. You can buy pepper spray that looks like a pen, pager or lipstick container! These pepper sprays have an element of surprise!

Hope for kids that are bullied in school

A new website is being used in some schools now called schooltipline.com. It allows bullied students to communicate with their school authorities about threats or threatening information they receive. It protects the identity of the sender and allows for two-way anonymous conversation. This is great for kids, especially shy kids, to come forward and get investigations started on bullies in their school.

Overall, the results of this new website have been very beneficial. There has been some misinformation provided by kids, but school personnel have stated that it is better to get some false information along with the legitimate information. Much of the information that has been reported by kids has been investigated, proven accurate and resolved.

I guess some may say that this is a little too much and that it may embark on the privacy of children. I think that children need to be monitored and guided as much as possible before they move out from under our roofs. Most importantly, if they are being physically abused by another kid.

Counterfeit money is more predominant now

Many people are using cash instead of credit cards lately due to the economic crisis. They have a portion of their pay checks cashed instead of depositing it entirely into their bank accounts. This could be a result of the economic crisis where people, including myself, are just being more cautious of who holds their money.

With more cash being exchanged, you will also encounter more counterfeit money exchanging hands. This applies to individuals and especially people who own retail businesses. These bills go through many hands before they are even detected as being counterfeit. Of course many people would not be able to tell which are counterfeit and which are not. When dealing with cash, the exchange is usually fast and what most people notice is the face value of the bill and not if it is fake! A fake bill doesn't necessarily look new either and sometimes people assume that if it's been around for a while, it must be legit! When dealing with cash, be especially cautious of large bills such as $50 and $100 bills!

If you are starting to deal with more cash as an individual or a retailer, you should consider an inexpensive Counterfeit Money Detector Pen. For less than $6, you can feel more at ease with exchanging cash. You can make a mark on the bill with this particular pen and if the mark you made turns yellow, the bill is legit. If the mark turns black or brown, it is fake. It's that simple! I never knew that detecting counterfeit money was that easy.

Famous Breast Cancer Survivors

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Many women suffer from this and many women have died from it. But there are some women who have battled through it and have survived. This is such a delicate subject that most celebrities keep it very confidential and go through it privately. Below are famous women who have survived breast cancer and have touched us in some way or another with their public lives.

Christina Applegate
Diahann Carroll
Melissa Etheridge
Kylie Minogue
Cynthia Nixon
Carly Simon
Sheryl Crow
Edie Falco
Kate Jackson
Olivia Newton-John
Lynn Redgrave
Cokie Roberts
Jaclyn Smith
Gloria Steinem
Suzanne Somers

Wall Street is Not Necessarily Your Street

While many people are panicking about the economic issues facing our nation as a whole, it is my opinion that we should focus on our own issues. Take a look at what is affecting your personal business, work, your neighborhood and your family. This is an approachable view of how it would affect you directly and here is where you can make practical changes. I believe that worrying about the entire nation as a whole is overwhelming and not pratical. The average American, unless they are directly involved with the government, would get overstressed in matters they cannot control.

The best thing to check is how the company you work for is doing financially or how your business is doing. Investigate the situation of your personal financial investments and again, focus on your local situation. This is something you should always keep an eye on anyway. If people directly around you are not being affected, you probably will not be affected either. Americans shouldn't panic, we should go on with our normal lives. This in turn will set the mood for the rest of the country. A nation in panic is not productive and will only feed fear. If it makes you feel better to turn the news off, do so, this might help you come back to your real life situation and not make you fearful of what most likely will not affect you anyway. Best thing to do is communicate with those around you.

Foreclosures are hurting some renters

A good number of Americans rent their homes and pay their rent on time. Lately though, due to all the foreclosures, they have been kicked out of their homes. I'm talking about law abiding tenants that have paid their rent, yet officials have been evicting them without notice. These people have been evicted due to lack of communication. This was brought to my attention this morning upon reading comments from a sheriff in the Chicago area. He has ordered that all tenants must be given 120 days notice before eviction and also that he would need proof of identification, that the people evicted are the actual owners of their homes. I was proud to know that a government official has spoken up about this and has made us take notice of this injustice.

With all the communication in this decade, you would think that this would be included. It should be the obligation of an owner of a rental property to inform the tenant that his or her property is in foreclosure. It should also, as the sheriff requested, be the law to make sure you are evicting the criminal in the case and not just a law abiding renter. And lastly, although there is a law in place in most states, officials should honor the law of allowing tenants some reasonable time to evict. Instead, people are getting thrown out to the streets through no fault of their own.

Check out all our new products, including Steetwise brand products.

Some of you might have noticed that we have quite a few new items in our WomenOnGuard.com website, most of which are Streetwise brand products. We always try to offer the best non-lethal, self defense products the market has to offer. There are new products under the Pepper Spray, Stun Guns, Personal Alarms and Home Protection categories.

One of the categories that stands out is the Pepper Sprays category. We have added new Streetwise brand pepper sprays. The average pepper spray sold contains 10% pepper, whereas the Steetwise brand contains 17% pepper. These defensive sprays also contain a higher SHU (Scoville Heat Unit), which make them even hotter. The Streetwise pepper sprays that contain 17% pepper includes the Pepper Foam and Pepper Pen.

Another category with new StreetWise products is the Stun Guns category. These include one of the smallest AND strongest stun guns available in the world. The Steetwise Small Fry Stun Gun is as small as a cigarette box, yet lets you carry 1,000,000 volts of power in your purse or pocket. Some Small Frys have bright LED flashlights and some are rechargeable. We also carry Streetwise Stun Guns with an Alarm. This is a new feature not found in many other stun guns. An alarm is yet another innovative feature to make your self defense product even safer. In addition to all the stun guns are the Streetwise Stun Batons. Some of these batons come with flashlights, some are expandable to 21 inches and some are rechargeable. Batons are great to keep in the home, replacing that old baseball bat under the bed...

There has been a sizable addition to our Home Protection and Other Products categories as well. Some of which include a couple of handy radio/flashlights that run on solar and/or cranking power. The Solar Radio Flashlight and Dynamo Radio Flashlights are great for when you are in a hurricane, winter storm, when the electricity goes out or to even take camping. WomenOnGuard.com has also added hidden safes to hide your valuables, ceiling alarms that detect intruders from above their head so they are less likely to know they are being noticed. We also included a mailbox notification system that lets you know when your mail has been delivered, which uses a chime and blinking a light.

Browse for new products throughout all our web pages to find that particular item you need!

ANOTHER female soldier killed in North Carolina!

Wow, now this is getting really scary! This is the 3rd female soldier in a 4 month span, that has been killed by her soldier husband or ex lover. This newest victim was 29-year-old Sgt. Christina E. Smith. The other 2 this year were Spc. Megan Touma and 2nd Lt. Holley Wimunc. Let's also not forget the high profile killing of a pregnant female soldier, killed by her boyfriend, late last December, who was captured in Mexico...

Way back in the day when I was growing up, if a boy was misbehaving, his parents would threaten to send him to military school. Well, I'm not sure parents would use that trick anymore! It seems like good behavior, morals and ethics is not taught in the military any more! Most people would assume that soldiers are the best behaved citizens in this country. I'm afraid this is no longer true. Recently there was a soldier caught on video throwing a puppy off a cliff and killing him! How sick is that?

You know what the scariest thing of all is about these soldiers? We trust the safety of our nation with them.

A man beats a 16-year-old girl over who was 1st in line

What kind of man would beat a 16-year-old girl, just to get ahead in a fast food line?
A girl was standing in line with her 5-year-old niece and a friend at a McDonalds countertop in Los Angeles, when a man came in with 2 small boys. She complained about him cutting in. They started to argue and after the girl swore at the man, he angrily reacted by punching her in the face several times. After he finished his bullying, he ran out with the 2 boys and fled in a red pickup truck. The girl was treated for her injuries and released.

All of this was video taped by the surveillance camera of the facility. Apparently this person has issues and picks on people physically smaller than himself! Hopefully he will be recognized by someone and turned in to the authorities. It would not surprise me if he has had a prior history of violence. If the 2 little boys were his sons, lets hope that they won't look up to him for an example of how to treat other people... As for the girl, she needs to be careful about swearing at strangers, because you never know who will flip out and beat you over the head or shoot you with a gun! This applies to restaurant lines, road traffic lanes or any other situation you might encounter.