A leading cause of homelessness

All over the world domestic violence is a leading cause of homelessness for women and children, and a lack of affordable housing options is regularly reported by survivors as one of the primary barriers to escaping abuse. Housing programmes provide critical services for survivors of domestic violence and are often a key component that allows survivors to flee the violence perpetrated against them. A woman shouldn’t have to be forced to return to an abusive relationship, and sometimes life-threatening situation, because of lack of affordable housing.

That is why we need to see more of a ‘smarter’ way of building. I am personally fed up hearing politicians and governments saying over and over again “we can’t afford new housing, we can’t afford to build”.

And while this sort of attitude just keeps going on day in and day out, hundreds of thousands of women and children live in fear in their own homes.

Where there is a will, there is a way. I am determined there is a more cost-efficient way of building and a more affordable way of housing.

Apart from the actual building itself, there needs to be more of housing programmes which would vary to include short and long-term housing, job opportunities and different types of support services that work to meet the individual needs of survivors. The ‘after-care’ is just as important as the actual moment a woman leaves an abusive relationship – it’s during the after-care that she will have a chance to re-build both her practical- and emotional life.

And to be able to have her own safe home is a very big and important part of making all this possible and to end the destructive cycle she is in.

To create opportunities and break destructive cycles

The Society for Child Development in India runs a programme where they take in tonnes of flower waste produced by temples and hotels in Delhi and turn it into organic skin-friendly powdered colours for Hindu festivals.

The director of the group, Dr Madhumita Puri, says that though society has been tackling the issue of poverty, it remains one of the greatest unsolved problems of the current generation. “The process does not just reduce waste but creates livelihoods”.

The organisation says charity is not a solution. What they look for is a market to sell their goods.

“There is only one solution that really strikes me, says Dr Puri – that there has to be a business solution, a business solution where everybody comes in,” she says.

“What does that person that’s in the vulnerable position do? The person has to learn the skills to run a business and that’s what our aim is – to provide them the opportunity of getting those skills.”

Imagine if we could see something similar in our western societies too.

I would love to see a similar set-up in the western world too – that we create business- and job opportunities for women so that they can be given the chance to break their destructive cycle of abuse, shame and guilt once and for all. To have a network of projects to assist women so that they can make a new start when they have no means to do so themselves, when they are stuck without money and work in a vicious cycle, or to help them break cycles of prostitution or abusive relationships.

This can’t be impossible, I am sure there could be ways we could create solutions in a completely new way, from a new angle. This is one of the things that I would love to create through the Crowdfunding campaign I am about to set up. I hope you will journey with me, and hopefully we could create something amazing and groundbreaking! Nothing is impossible.