Suad has been working as a Pregnancy Outreach Worker for over six years. Because of her language skills, she works mainly with people who are new arrivals to the country.
Suad (pictured) says, “the POWs’ strength comes from being able to work one-to-one with mum. Many of the women I work with come from a background where women don’t have many rights, so in a lot of cases it’s my job to educate and empower them. I help them understand that they have rights, and that they have a voice.”
Fatima’s story
One of the women Suad worked with is Fatima*.
Originally from Yemen, Fatima had grown up in a small farming village where the culture dictated that girls weren’t allowed to go to school. So she had never learned to read or write and, even though she spoke Arabic, she often found it difficult to make herself understood.
At around the age of 20, Fatima moved to the UK with her husband to live with him, his mother and his two sisters, and over the next six years, she had three children.
During her fourth pregnancy, Fatima’s midwife referred her to POWS and she was assigned to Suad.
“It was difficult to communicate at first,” says Suad, “but I worked out pretty quickly that Fatima had been systematically abused and isolated by her husband and his family. When she was with them, she had been beaten every day. She’d only just managed to leave them, after six years of abuse.”
Fatima’s husband’s family had made sure that she only ever left the house either alone without her children, or with a family member. But one day she found herself outside, alone and with two of her children. So instead of going to the shops, she went to her neighbour’s house for help.
The neighbour, a friend of Fatima’s own family, who understood the situation (and had in fact contacted police in the past, although Fatima had declined their help) immediately put her in a taxi to Fatima’s uncle’s house, and told the husband’s family she didn’t know where she’d gone.
Now, with no belongings and no benefits, living in her uncle’s house with a baby on the way, Fatima needed urgent help. She had a supportive midwife, but she hadn’t been able to fill in any forms or pass any security tests, because she couldn’t speak English, and couldn’t read or write, even in Arabic. She didn’t know how to access any services or even what kind of help she was entitled to.
Over the three months that Suad supported Fatima, she helped her to apply for the benefits she was entitled to, as well as finding baby clothes and equipment for her, putting her in touch with a family solicitor, and getting her onto the housing waiting list.
When Suad finished supporting Fatima, she was still living with her uncle and two of her children, but her story is far from over. Her remaining son is still living with her husband’s family and, sadly, doesn’t have contact with his mum.
Thanks to the midwife who referred Fatima to Suad, and the support services that Suad has been able to help Fatima to access, including a family solicitor, Fatima is continuing to build a new life and working towards bringing her own family back together.
If you are affected by the issues in this story, please click here to see a list of links and phone numbers that might be able to help.
*Fatima’s name has been changed
A heartwarming story, Katherine. Are your POW’s under threat?
Yes Barry I’m afraid they are, or at least their way of working is. Early years services are being redesigned in Birmingham and will be provided by a new partnership of providers, we’re not included. Although we’ve been given assurances the POW way of working will be embedded into this new model we have our doubts. From what we see the support will not be as intensive or tailored and it wont be available for so long. We’ll have to hope we’re wrong.