Meet the Derbyshire woman who is plastering the homes of domestic abuse survivors for free
By ITV Central Producer, Ciaran Fitzpatrick
Naima Ben-Moussa, a plasterer from Derbyshire, is raising money to renovate the homes of people affected by domestic abuse.
It started after Naima, who also suffered abuse as a child, worked on the house of a woman who had just left her abusive partner.
"I looked around, I saw in her living room there was nowhere for her family to recover," Naima says. "There was no flooring, no lights...there were holes in all the walls. There was nowhere, anywhere, for them to recover as a family."
The woman said she was going to pay for the materials out of her benefits. Naima thought "I just couldn't stand that," as she had young children to look after.
She says, "How could we live in a time where there isn't money or access that can help these women recover from the violence and damage to their properties?"
Naima says the relationship with that first woman is "something very special" and she is so happy to see her finally have a space in which to recover.
Naima says that the more people hear about what she's doing, the more women get in contact - from all around the country.
She is now in the process of setting up a charity to help continue the work she's doing on a wider scale. "I'd like it to go further, it's my dream now and I want to help other people," Naima said. "This is what I stand for, I want people to know we are here for you."
"What started out as a fundraiser for myself and for other people that I'm volunteering for, I'd like it to be a charity now. We've raised more than £11,000."
'Register for Tradeswomen' was founded by Hattie Hasan MBE, a plumber for 30 years.
She started the not-for-profit business following the "upturn in women being abused in their own homes" during the pandemic.
It helps connect women with other tradeswomen, and they also train domestic abuse survivors in skills like plumbing, plastering and other trades-work.
Pressures from the coronavirus pandemic have heightened the risk of domestic abuse, with a record number of cases being dealt with by the family courts.
One in five offences – more than a quarter of a million – recorded by police during and immediately after the first national lockdown in England and Wales involved domestic abuse, according to the Office for National Statistics.
An ITV News investigation found the UK Criminal Justice system is facing unprecedented backlogs and it's affecting survivors of domestic abuse and sexual assault as they are forced to wait over a year for their day in court.
Hattie, drawing on her own experiences of surviving abuse as a child, believes that going one step further and helping train these women with the skills to fix their own homes, is incredibly important.
"A lot of women say, 'if I hadn't trained in trades, I don't know where I'd be right now... "I realised there's a lot of women fixing themselves, by fixing things...especially if you are surviving abuse of any kind."
Naima says she thinks the government needs to "listen up and put in more money" to help domestic abuse survivors as "they are being failed."
"It shouldn't be up to us, as people, to stand together, although it's an amazing thing to be part of... the government need to realise it's not up to us, they need to help too."
In a statement, a Government spokesperson for the Home Office told ITV News Central:
“The Domestic Abuse Act will help the millions of people affected by domestic abuse, giving police new powers such as Domestic Abuse Protection Orders providing victims with immediate protection from abusers, and that abusers will no longer be allowed to directly cross-examine their victims in the family and civil courts.
“Almost half of all pharmacies across the UK, including Boots, are now participating in our ‘Ask for Ani’ code word scheme and our #YouAreNotAlone campaign, which helps victims access support, is estimated to have reached over 32 million.
"Victims of rape and domestic abuse will also be helped by a major £40m funding boost for specialist support services as well as a total of £151m to support victims."
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