Tina and Friends fundraised more than £800 at Jubilee’s Charity Dinner held at the Gheeta Bhavan Temple for three charities – Quetzal Leicester, the Laura Centre and Manukhta Di Sewa Society.
Learn more about Tina’s Journey through Quetzal and how with the support of friends and family, she was able to donate £250 to Quetzal from fundraiser.
My name is Tina, and I am a survivor of Domestic Abuse and Childhood Trauma.
I never thought I would need help to understand my trauma and mental health. As a teenager, I had been through the bereavement of my beloved dad passing away suddenly, leaving a big hole in my heart. As a family, our lives were shattered following his passing. Unfortunately, apart from my mother, his 6 children and 2 grandchildren were unable to attend his funeral to say their final goodbyes. Looking back now, this seemed to have affected me more than anyone else as this opportunity was taken away from me.
I’ve always had trust issues and hated controlling and manipulative individuals in my life. When I lost my stillborn due to domestic abuse, I went into severe post-natal depression. The trauma of losing a child and subsequent grief compounded this.
I have lived most of my life with depression, stress and anxiety. During Covid-19, my anxiety and stress were so bad that I started to struggle at work as well as at home. The coping skills and defence mechanisms I have learned, I was not able to put into practice. Work was changing and becoming very challenging, and I felt out of control with no work-life balance. The behaviour of others was affecting my mental health, and this was affecting my physical health.
Finally, I wanted to do something for myself as I thought that I can’t keep on living like this where other people were taking advantage of my vulnerability. I found out that Meena Kumari, Director of the H.O.P.E Training & Consultancy would be running a Domestic Abuse Recovery Toolkit Programme in May 2021. It was a 12-week programme on Zoom for one and half-hour and at a time, I signed myself up for this programme. During one of the sessions, Dr Marie Lefebvre from Quetzal came as a guest speaker to introduce us to The Quetzal Project.
I knew, I needed more support after the recovery toolkit programme, so I referred myself to Quetzal. Since joining Quetzal, I have attended so many different Zoom workshops, Group sessions, Quetzal Stories of Change a Collective Exhibition in Feb 2022 and I am now on their waiting list to receive counselling. I have had my telephone assessment and I have been told exactly what will happen after the assessment. While I am waiting for my counselling to begin formally, I have been offered to attend single session therapy in July. I always get emails about upcoming events and opportunities to book new sessions. I attended workshops on Resilience and Confidence which has given me more tools and techniques to be able to understand my triggers, emotions and thought processes.
All the Staff at Quetzal are very professional and understand my needs, they show empathy and compassion. During group sessions, they would make sure we felt safe and that we maintained confidentiality outside of the sessions of what we discussed. For the first time in my life, I feel that I’m in control of my life. I better understand why I don’t trust people and why I let some people take advantage of my situation and vulnerabilities.
As a “thank you” to The Quetzal Project and the team, myself and my friends organised a charity dinner event on the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee to raise awareness and money for this amazing charity. We raised more than £800 for three charities and donated £250 to Quetzal which I am so proud of, and I appreciate the support and help received from my family and friends in achieving this.
About the Jubilee’s Charity Dinner
The event was held at Gheeta Bhavan Temple on Clarendon Park Road. More than 80 people attended in total. It featured live entertainment from Kulbinder Rai aka ‘The Singing Policeman‘, a special dance performance and a raffle. More importantly, they shared valuable information to the attendees on the support available in Leicester for health and wellbeing.
After the event, the group of fundraisers came to Quetzal to donate £250 from the fundraiser, and meet with CEO Deborah Knight and staff member dr Marie Lefebvre.
Big Thank You For Quetzal
At Quetzal, we are ever so grateful for the £250 donation allowing us to ensure our support remains FREE and INCLUSIVE to all. We are grateful for all the information sharing which will support survivors of childhood sexual abuse in their journey towards healing. We are finally grateful for the connection supporting better mental health in our communities in Leicester. Thank you also for coming to Quetzal and meeting with the team.
