Against violence and abuse

Sat 4 Dec: WinVisible speaking at Waltham Forest Reclaim the Night Coalition online rally

By winvisibleblog | 02 December 2021 | 0 Comments

This Saturday 4 December, we’re on a panel at the Waltham Forest Reclaim the Night Coalition online rally.  4.30pm to 6pm.  All women welcome.  Among other speakers, Ariane and Ebere will speak about violence against disabled women and girls, the discrimination we face from the police, courts, asylum system, agencies and services, and what we need to make us safer. On Zoom with auto-captions.  Zoom link:https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88005723207?pwd=QzM0Nnh2bmlMc2tYUExMYVBPaW9Wdz09Meeting ID: 880 0572 3207Passcode: 697484 Organised by Waltham Forest Women’s Network / East London Unite Community

Ebere’s story – surviving violence back home and in the UK

By winvisibleblog | 08 June 2021 | 1 Comment

Ebere is a disabled woman from Nigeria, who came to the UK to seek asylum and safety from horrendous disability persecution, including rape and other violence. WinVisible supported Ebere when she was fighting her asylum case.  She was referred to us by Women Against Rape, who are refugee and UK-born women, colleagues at the Crossroads Women’s Centre where we are based.  Listen to Ebere’s interview here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p09gv28k See below for written version — report by BBC. WinVisible adds: Anti-deportation groups at the Centre have supported and won the release of women asylum seekers in detention.  Many … Read more

#KillTheBill joint statement

By winvisibleblog | 05 April 2021 | 0 Comments

Kill The Bill Coalition Statement We, the undersigned groups and organisations, stand in solidarity with all those fighting to #KillTheBill.  The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill is a dangerous and unnecessary piece of legislation that endangers the rights and safety of every single one of us. It is therefore no surprise that those who are working to #KillTheBill have come together from every section of society. We stand united and reject attempts to divide our movement into “good” and “bad” protestors.  We must be clear: there is no version of this Bill that is … Read more

Our statement to Labour for national disability strategy

By winvisibleblog | 11 December 2020 | 0 Comments

On 8 December, WinVisible was among disability organisations, union and other representatives invited to a Roundtable discussion with Labour leader Keir Starmer MP, Marsha de Cordova (Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities) and Vicky Foxcroft MP (Shadow Minister for Disabled People) on Zoom to put forward recommendations towards Labour’s national disability strategy. Topics included how disabled people’s organisations should be consulted, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as a legal framework to uphold our rights, the pay gap and lack of accessibility for disabled employees, the importance of social … Read more

Have your say to recognise caring work & everyone’s right to benefits!

By winvisibleblog | 20 October 2020 | 2 Comments

Dear friends, Your views and support are needed on new proposals for the benefits system from the Commission on Social Security, a claimants’ panel.  Please share this with your friends and networks. Responses to the questionnaire needed by 31 October Disabled mothers and family carers on the Commission, including us, pressed for proposals to include a living wage for carers of disabled people.  And to extend this to mothers. A living wage would recognise the unwaged work which mothers and other carers do, including disabled women ourselves, to ensure the survival and welfare of people … Read more

Social care: our submission to MPs’ inquiry on funding and workforce

By winvisibleblog | 01 August 2020 | 3 Comments

Dear friends, Here is our statement sent to the Health and Social Care Select Committee. This is a cross-party committee of MPs which is responsible for scrutinising the work of the Department of Health and Social Care.  They invited people and groups to send views and experiences for their inquiry, Social care: funding and workforce, also for people to make recommendations on the long-term future funding of social care.  We did it because we are very worried about the government’s plans and that we will have even less say over our living situation, than now. … Read more

Black Lives Matter — George Floyd, Sarah Reed

By winvisibleblog | 06 June 2020 | 0 Comments

Trigger warning — very disturbing Everyone has been appalled and upset about George Floyd being killed by the police kneeling on his neck, back and legs (see picture below taken from the other side of the police vehicle).  Similar deaths in police custody have happened here in the UK, with Black people in mental distress being particularly targetted. As support for the peaceful anti-racist #BlackLivesMatter protests across the world, we remember Sarah Reed, a bereaved mother brutalised in turn by the police, psychiatric and prison system, resulting in her death in 2016 in Holloway Prison.  … Read more

Testimony to MPs: unequal impact of Coronavirus measures

By winvisibleblog | 01 May 2020 | 6 Comments

WinVisible has sent our group testimony to the Women and Equalities Select Committee of MPs urgently looking into the impact of the Coronavirus measures on discriminated groups.  Women in our group and network contributed their experiences.  We say: “The reality for disabled women, the majority of disabled people, is that the measures against Coronavirus are threatening our lives through starvation, denial of medical treatment and lack of social care daily living support.  This crisis came on top of years of cuts which hit disabled women/BAME communities hardest, and after many thousands of women, especially pensioners, had … Read more

Bedroom tax: DWP can’t appeal vs DV mum at European Court

By winvisibleblog | 07 March 2020 | 0 Comments

The government cruelly appeals against every court win which upholds our benefit rights and protects vulnerable claimants.  But the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has refused the DWP permission to appeal against the mum fleeing domestic violence and her son, who finally won against the bedroom tax at the ECHR in October 2019 — after a battle lasting six years. In 2016, we criticised the majority UK Supreme Court judges, who among other cases, ruled that the mum and her son living in fear of violence from her ex-partner at … Read more

Mental Health Resistance Network launches “We Demand”

By winvisibleblog | 19 November 2018 | 0 Comments

Our friends Mental Health Resistance Network (MHRN) have published their own wide-ranging list of demands by people with mental distress, “We Demand”, ahead of tomorrow’s conference of high-up NHS professionals, Care Quality Commission and Mind, on: “Next steps for mental health services in England – funding, care quality and efficiencies” (20 November 2018).   MHRN are calling a protest outside from 8am-11am (early so as to be seen by people going in): https://www.facebook.com/events/544653469293319/ The booklet “We Demand” tackles what is wrong with mental health services, how someone’s mental distress is treated out of context of their … Read more