Reverend Karen Sethuraman:

I worked with women in a loyalist estate up North for about five years. It does not matter about our background; all our needs are the same. They ranged from childcare to lone parenting. What has been said is key. It is about the connectedness between people in the grassroots to make sure we team up together. There is no room for competitiveness in this. I keep bringing up this report because I encounter survivors of abuse almost daily. I have recognised that people in housing developments and loyalist estates cannot afford therapy. There is help for abuse victims if they can afford it. If we then direct them to their local GP, they go onto a waiting list. In their waiting time, they are dealing with trauma. They are trying to be a mom and work while dealing with this stuff inside. This causes them to struggle with their mental health. Recently, funding has been withdrawn from organisations that work with abuse victims. We need to invest in that because many of us cannot afford to pay for a therapist. That is why there needs to be a concentrated effort. I love, champion and work with amazing organisations at the grassroots of our community but there needs to be a sense of togetherness to make this better for our women. The pain of a woman in a PUL community is exactly the same as the pain of a woman in a CNR community. We need to rise above seeing us as two communities, them and us.

We mentioned race as well. I am from a mixed-race marriage. My kids recently shared with me the racism they have faced. We have recently had as a family to sit down and talk about safety. I have never had to do that. There has to be a collective way to pull these stories together and an action plan. We need funding to help our women heal from abuse. Some 50% of those women experienced abuse under the age of 11. I am here as a minister and am ashamed of what the institutions and churches have done to our island. I would like to help in some way the healing from that. Toxic teachings have broken out into our communities where women feel shame, guilt and all the things I see every day. We have an opportunity when we think of something new to begin to feed hope back in and to feed back in that we are not just here to speak nice pious words but are committed to making sure women get healed from the abuses they have experienced.