Cayman Crisis Centre celebrates first anniversary protecting women from abuse

Estella Scott (L) Executive Director and Wendi Mayhan
Children’s Co-ordinator of Crisis

by Wendy Ledger

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

The Cayman Islands Crisis Centre, (CICC), recently celebrated its first anniversary, have begun offering a place of safety to women on the Islands last summer.

Estella Scott, the Executive Director, her colleague Wendi Mayhan, the Children’s Co-ordinator, and their night-time shift workers and counsellors do the best they can to help and support women, and their children who are at risk. And they have do it all on a government grant that just about covers their salary costs and nothing else.

Meeting the costs of running the office, and the residential centre, paying for essential security, food, diapers, utilities and everything else is a constant battle for Estella. “Right now, we don’t even have a photocopier that is working,” she said.

With support from the community and a few miracles here and there, some how, week after week, the team at CICC manage to run the hotline, give sanctuary to women and their children in need, help them rebuild their lives, offer counselling and support, and when necessary, teach school to the children involved, as well as trying to help them heal.

“Sometimes children who come here with their mothers are also at risk from the abuser, so they can’t always go to school,” said Wendi, who as well as assisting in the day-to-day running of the centre is a qualified teacher. “So we provide the necessary facilities. We can use the opportunity to use things like art therapy, to help the kids deal with what they have seen.

“Around three-quarters of women that come here do so with children, and those kids may not always be at risk from the man abusing their mother, but if they are, it simply may not be safe to allow them to go to school. So we are able to teach everything here.”

Estella and her team face many challenges in the work that they do, but they try to focus on empowering the women that come to them.

CICC is not a welfare establishment and Estella aims to give women the tools they need to rebuild their lives. “It is very important that we support and guide the women that come here, rather than doing things for them,” said Estella. “We want to help the women help themselves. By the time they come to us, they could have made many attempts to leave the abusive situation that they were in, so we need to help them make the move permanent.

“That means facing them in the right direction in either finding a safe place to live, finding work and childcare and how to get social support if need be, but it is not about getting a flat, job or money for them.”

The Centre can house up to 18 women and their children at any one time, but Wendi said they would be reluctant to turn anyone away if they were at risk. So with sofas and pullouts and whatever else is available, they do what they can to take care of every woman who comes to them in need.

In general women are referred to them through the social services or the police or they invite women to the Centre who have contacted the crisis line

“There is no typical background to describe the women who have sought shelter here,” said Estella. “We’ve had women from all over the world, of all races and economic backgrounds.

“We’ve had women as young as 19 and as old as 52. Some have been abused by husbands and boyfriends, others by men they had already left, and some women have been victims of rape.”

The Centre deals with all crises faced by women including cases where young girls had been drugged and possible raped while out drinking, a worrying trend emerging on the Islands.

The work that Crisis Centre does to meet the immediate needs of women is essential but it is not the only thing it does.

Estella also does vital work with the community in schools, prisons, youth groups and churches, attempting to create a preventative culture and to break cycles of abuse.

“We don’t yet have a culture where women feel free to talk about issues such as rape and abuse. Many women are still afraid to report incidents, because they are afraid they will be blamed,” said Estella. “That is why our work in the community is important. To try and change this culture, these things need to be discussed.”

The work at the Crisis Centre is multi-dimensional. No two days are the same for the team. From handling calls from women on the hotline, to helping abused children overcome their trauma, the work they do is essential.

The Cayman community has recognised the importance of the Centre, and has been supportive. Last Christmas, Estella and Wendi were both deeply moved by the generosity of donors, but the problem they face is that they are open for another 364 days every year, and keeping that way is a constant challenge, but so far, the team is managing to do so.

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