I'm TRYING to be nicer (and to listen)...

I'm known at work for:

- being supportive of women when men treat them badly

- being angry when women allow men to treat them badly.

But, partly through personal circumstances, partly through being involved with World Pulse, I'm trying to have more patience to explain my reasoning.

It's not always easy though!

- I had a client a while back, a Mrs J, who showed me the scars and bruises her husband had produced after beating her. When I asked if she had somewhere to go, she said "Oh I couldn't leave him dear, he needs me".

- Last year, a colleague had an 18-year-old client who told her that she was raped when she was 13 - but hadn't reported it. She thought that until she was18 she had no rights.

However, my main reasons for writing this are

(1) to iterate what I said before about ALWAYS reporting things however trivial they may seem to you at the time. We live in a patriarchal society and every report is another nail in its coffin.

(2) to say that I'm trying to listen. I have been appalled by some of the things I've heard and seen on this site, and I am always willing to listen (even though I wish bad things didn't exist) .

So please either tell World Pulse or tell me - because a problem shared is a problem halved.

When I was at uni, I was a counsellor for 'female concerns', so I'm used to it.

Allie