I was asked what the hardest things are working in the charity sphere.
For me it starts with the people we dedicate our lives to assisting:
On the whole we have spent the majority of our time:
Helping survivors negotiate the system (policing, legal, social services, health) starting always on the back foot, fighting to prove they are survivors, with every step an uphill battle to stay sane, while repeatedly trying to get anyone to understand that they need assistance, protection and/or relief.
We support countless survivors negotiate being interrogated instead of believed, intimidated by the legal system, afraid of social services and then labeled with mental health issues, when what they have is trauma and the anxiety and depression that goes along with simply trying to make a safe space to live in.
In the long term, we help survivors tackle financial battles (including with schools who turn a blind eye to court ordered school fee arrangements), the continued onslaught of ŕidiculous allegations and the inability of the system to implement the great legislation we have.
Over and above that we spend years - yes, years - walking healing journeys with survivors (this after the years (often) of court cases and crises management).
We see daily the long term effects of, not only what occurred during the abuse, but all the trauma that occurs after the fact.
And over and above that, we work with education and understanding the deep rooted, social issues underlying the prevalence of gender based, interpersonal and intimate partner violence. It is not an easy task and often a thankless and misunderstood one.
Showing people the underbelly of human behaviour is not a popular task, but an essential one if we are ever to lower the occurrence of such abuses. Can we eradicate it - well, that's up for debate.
Lastly, we have legal and financial hoops to jump through. As charity organisations we battle to be funded. The perception is we should provide all our services free and be funded by either government, corporate or filthy rich philanthropists (none of which is the norm).
We, alongside other organisations who work with social problems, are largely unfunded and spend an inordinate amount of time - that could be better spent running our programmes - begging for money to keep our organisations afloat by trying to explain the difference we make innpeople's lives without invading the privaxy of, or puttting our survivor's through the degradation of having their lives picked apart by people who do not know them or the journeys they have endured.
Working in charity is not glamorous or easy.
We are often at the brunt of people's anger and judgment. We hold a line that others shy away from and often put ourselves in danger, still at the end of the day we do it in service of the survivors we work with in the hopes of building a better world for future generations to live in.
Spare a thought for those who work in charity organisations!
Celeste Emmanuel Louw
Vice President
Optimystic Bikers against Abuse NPC
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