CCChat-Magazine_Issue-13

Meet Ngozi Fulani
founder of
Sistah Space
I
didn't
plan to be an Independent Domestic Violence Advisor
(IDVA), I didn't even know what it was until a set of
circumstances led me down the path I now find myself on.
It was the murder of Valerie Forde and her 22 month old
daughter 'Baby J' that really set me on this particular journey.
Valerie died and her baby died just a short time after reporting threats made by her ex-partner to
burn down the house with her and the children in it. This was recorded by police as 'A threat to
property'. Consequently no actions were put in place to safeguard Valerie and baby J. Violence
against women and girls is something that I had grown accustom to hearing about about most of my
life. All the images that I saw and all the people I heard speaking about it were mainly white women.
No black women I knew that had experienced domestic abuse had ever received adequate support,
they all had issues with either the way the police handled them, asking to see red marks or bruising,
or the way refuges couldn’t understand their basic needs. For that reason, I decided to do the IDVA
training to maybe of some support to people I knew.
I was amazed to realise that there was nothing at all in the training programmes that related to
African or Caribbean women. We learned about almost every other community & culture and how
they are affected. We were taught what resources were available for certain groups, including those
with disabilities, victims of Honour Based Violence, every conceivable group, but no mention about
black women. I raised it, but had no response as to why this was. We also had a lot of visitors as
part of the course, but never any women from the black community. I raised it time and time again
until finally they invited me down to their offices for a chat.
After another long gap of over a year, in which time I had to keep making contact, I was invited to
deliver training. The training took place last year and to date no visible changes have been
implemented. My request for an update have been practically ignored. To date I am challenging
those many domestic abuse organisations that continue to refer African heritage women to
organisations that do not and can't cater for black women. Sending black women victims/survivors of
domestic abuse to organisations that do not understand them, place them at further risk of harm.
It is not possible to do an accurate risk assessment on women if you don't understand their cultural
needs. Rastafarian and other grassroots women are invisible in plain sight. I have yet to see a
mainstream organisation that has women from these communities in a decision making postion.
Sending black women to refuges or places where they can't access the items they need increases
the risk that they will return to the perpetrator.
February 16th would have been Valerie Forde's 50th birthday. The 31st March was the 5 year
anniversary of the murders. On that day we re-launched Valerie's Law to try to get every
organisation to sign up for cultural awareness course.
To sign the petition go to: www.change.org
VALERIE'S LAW- Make discrimination Awareness Training Compulsory in DV Organisations.
Making The Invisible Visible