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Help us to remain a lighthouse "HOME" in a time of darkness and crisis. The cost of living has gone up tremendously and we are running a home of safety for 112 survivors per annum. We need to raise funds for operational cost and maintenance. 

I trust that this piece written by Celeste Solomons, social worker, will make you stop, read and choose to donate and help the many GBV survivors that cross our threshold.

What makes a house a home and why do they say, “wherever he laid his hat, was his home.”? How does this bear reference to us and the work we do? What do we need to do to extend it further and wider than just here?

A few years ago we were challenged by a group of residents to change the descriptive explanation of the organisation. So we went from ‘a shelter for abused women and children’, to ‘a home of safety and caring for survivors of abuse’… Why? What was needed and what was identified?

The questions in society are often framed to the male person… he, the father figure or a sense thereof. It's a key line in a song by The Temptations: 'Pappa was a rolling stone'. And, the absence of a father in a child's life is seen… the father's voice and presence.

But the heart of the home and what is personified to make the home sweet ,is the presence of a mother. Not just physically so, but actively in attendance. The safe adult person. So how does this mean for us, if we're not yet mothers or having our own space to call home yet? The heart is personified for holding the emotion of love, yet its purpose as an organ is to pump blood through the body. So is mothering and all it encapsulates limited to the building we're in? How we embody and practice love, while we ourselves are being perfected, is a choice we make each day.

There was no choice but to change the slogan so that the ladies could realise we are not a controlling prison, but instead, a centre of teachable love. They say we’re like the family who wasn’t there – the mommies and aunties who stuck through their journey to show them love.

And in reading the above, please consider to donate to our campaign.

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