Mary–Justine Todd is the founder and executive director of Shamsaha, the first and only 24 hours a day, seven days a week domestic violence crisis prevention program operating in the Middle East.
Shamsaha, which means “her sun” and launched in 2016, has 120 trained and certified women’s crisis advocates working in English and Arabic, with a new app that offers a wealth of information and research as well as text, phone and video crisis counseling.
Mary–Justine is a former humanitarian aid worker with master’s degrees in public health and international studies who joined me to talk about domestic violence in the Middle East and the work her organization is doing to support women when they have nowhere else to turn.
Highlights:
• How the new Shamsaha app works
• Domestic violence in the Middle East
• Why advice doesn’t work
• Domestic violence isn’t any different in the Gulf, despite what you read
• How crisis intervention can help avoid and heal PTSD
• How crisis intervention can help the economy
• Decoding the cycle of abuse
• Helping domestic helpers
Where to find Shamsaha:
Web: https://shamsaha.org
Instagram: @shamsaha_me