By Kiri Lanice Walton, Staff Writer
news@williamsonherald.com

Young woman escapes abuse, finds passion to help others

Alecia Venkataraman is not even 24 years old, and she has helped her father open a digital production business, is working on her MBA at Belmont University and helping people make their lives beautiful.

On June 5, she opened the doors of her own non-profit organization, Make It Beautiful, in Cool Springs after four months of planning.

However, only two years ago, this ambitious woman with so much promise had no hope and did not want to continue living. She spent two years in an abusive marriage and when she finally left, her self-esteem had been plummeted and she was not sure if there was anything left for which to live.

With the support of her family and friends, Venkataraman was able to put one foot in front of the other and move forward and there is no slowing her down now.

The organization's mission is simple, but powerful: help individuals gain access to resources that may be out of reach or too costly in order to make their lives beautiful.

When people come to Make It Beautiful, which is essentially a resource center, they learn to answer two questions: Where are you? Where do you want to be?

Then they, along with Make It Beautiful coordinators, develop an action plan to reach their destination. Venkataraman said the action plan is very similar to a business plan.

The organization will also offer programs such as, "Just Be Kids" - assisting terminally ill children and their families; "Single & Strong" - empowering single parents and their children; "Second Chances" - encouraging individuals starting over in new life circumstances; and "Create" - an art expression program for individuals to express emotions, build relationships and receive hope.

"I guess it all started four years ago. I married the man of my dreams. We dated for three years and it just seemed like a good fit for us," Venkataraman said.

It was on her honeymoon, she said, that she found out about his "second life." She discovered that he was abusive, an alcoholic and had relationships with other women.

"It was really, really devastating to me especially to find all of this out just a couple days after I vowed my life," Venkataraman said.

However, she decided to stay in the marriage to make it work because of an inner tenacity. She had graduated high school at 16 and from Belmont University at 19 and had always followed through on anything she began, and she wanted to see her marriage work.

"I'm a very committed person. I really loved this man, and I wanted to do everything I could to try and make it work. I tried to get him some help," Venkataraman said, but then she began to realize there was no hope for the marriage.

Things continued on a downward spiral and got to the point that Venkataraman would hide in her car or the closet and she feared for her life.

"It's important for anybody that feels like they may be with someone who has abusive tendencies or is an alcoholic that they first of all realize who they are and that nobody deserves that," Venkataraman said.

She finally realized that she had a choice to continue to stay in the abusive relationship or to attempt to make a change and get out.

"To be completely honest, I just had no self esteem. I had no self worth. I didn't think it was worth fighting for, I just thought it would be too hard."

She said a simple prayer, "God if you have anything better for me in this life then just get me out of here."
She contacted friends and family and left with $50 in her pocket. She moved to Nashville and began rebuilding her life, her self worth and a road for others to do the same.

She had to determine her passions and how she wanted the rest of her life to be. Her friends and family called her every day to remind her to just put one foot in front of the other and take it day by day.

She began to realize that she wanted to own a home, go back to school and earn her MBA and to pursue a business career.
June 5 was not just the grand opening of Make It Beautiful, but it was the two-year anniversary of when she left the abuse behind.

"And in these two years, God has really made my life beautiful. I own a home. I launched this nonprofit. I have another business I started with my family and I'm getting my MBA at Belmont."

She said she has great relationships with both her family and friends and has learned to trust people once again, and is more confident in who she is.

"In walking this journey over the past two years, I've developed this passion because there are thousands of women in their closets tonight. There are thousands of women and men grieving, going through a divorce, maybe they've lost someone they love."

"There's a lot of people that feel that hopelessness that I felt."

To offer people a support group and network, Make It Beautiful facilitates Empowerment Group of about 12 people with similar circumstances who meet for an hour each week for eight weeks. They work through curriculum that staff at Make It Beautiful have written and "we ask them to dream," Venkataraman said.

She said it offers a network and a sense of family for the group members. The first group began meeting on June 23 and another will be launched soon.

Venkataraman said she wants to walk into the lives of these people and "empower them to take the steps necessary to make their lives beautiful so that they can look back, two, three, four, five years from now and say, 'Wow, my life truly is beautiful.'"
It was February when Venkataraman began asking people around her for help, to volunteer to help others realize their own goals. Four months later, it is a fully operating resource center.

"The community has been absolutely phenomenal," she said. When people have not been able to give funding, they gave of their time, resources and supplies.

"I just want to thank everybody in the community. We've had so much support, so many volunteers. I honestly mean that we could not open without support from the community."

For those who want to help support Make It Beautiful, there is the Latté Program, which for the price of one latté per month, supporters can donate funds to the organization.

Also for those wishing to become involved in other ways or to seek services from Make It Beautiful, visit their Web site at www.makeitbeautiful.net.

There are 12 staff members, three of whom are paid and the others volunteer their time.

Her vision for Make It Beautiful is to have a second location open by next year and to eventually have a chapter in every major city.

"I feel that every one can benefit from an organization like this," Venkataraman said.