Whatever It Takes for as Long as It Takes

Ali* is 22 and has been with Bloom for more than 5 years. She loves hanging out with her friends and naturally lights up each room with her bubbly personality.

However, life hasn’t always been like this for Ali. She spent her formative years captive in a highly exploitive and abusive environment with no love or support. Ali came to Bloom when she was 16, however, this was just the start of her journey. Deep trauma can take a long time to heal and building a new life takes time.

Over the last 6 years, Ali has been surrounded by the love and support that she needed to help build her confidence. When she first arrived, she received extensive counselling, education, hospitality training, and general life skill training like budgeting and goal setting. A few years ago, Ali expressed that she was interested in one-day starting a business. Knowing her dreams and wholeheartedly believing in her potential, we entrusted her to help manage one of Bloom’s social enterprise cafes, giving her the opportunity to learn what it takes to manage a business (sales, management, budgets etc). She thrived in this role!

At the end of last year, Ali told us that she had been saving her wages from Bloom to start a wholesale toy store. After a month trialling the business (knowing that she would be safe to return to work at Bloom if the store was unsuccessful), Ali came back and met with us to share that her business had taken off and that she would be leaving Bloom to build the business full time. She left beaming with pride of what she had achieved – not just in her business, but also her own skills and self-confidence. We will continue to keep in touch with Ali to offer support, mentorship and to follow her success.

Some girls take just a few years to rebuild their lives. Others have such deep trauma that it takes much longer. But we believe that every girl is worth fighting for and we are committed to doing whatever it takes for as long as it takes to ensure that girls like Ali are set up to thrive for the rest of their lives. Thank you for joining us in this mission.

*Not her real name. Identifying information has been altered to protect safety and dignity.

“We’ve Never Seen a Change Like This Before”

Early this year, a neighbour heard Nita’s screams of despair. Her father was arrested and Nita was sent to a shelter. After a few months, it was time for Nita to leave; however, the physical and emotional effects of her trauma were still debilitating. She couldn’t bathe, dress or feed herself and would lie on her bed with her eyes glazed over, unable to cope with day-to-day activities. Her lack of education and her inability to carry out basic tasks meant that no other training centres or workplaces would take her.

When Nita came to Bloom for a trial day, she was shaking with fear and unable to comprehend instructions or complete basic tasks. Despite her vast challenges, Bloom decided to accept Nita into the program, as these are the very girls that we are here for. The girls that wouldn’t survive if Bloom didn’t exist. Girls with so much potential and promise who just need a safe space to heal.

Each day at Bloom, Nita is immersed in a safe and supportive environment where she is learning literacy skills, earning hospitality qualifications and receiving trauma counselling. After only 2 weeks in the program, Nita’s social worker rang Bloom and asked “What do you do? I have never seen a change like this! Nita has started bathing herself, gets dressed by her herself, and is making her own meals”.

With the help of her leaders and counsellors, Nita is bravely working to build a new life filled with hope and purpose. Instead of dreading the future, Nita now looks forward to seeing her friends at Bloom and dreams of helping her siblings to build a brighter life. She has successfully graduated from the hospitality program works full-time at the Bloom social enterprise cafe where she is surrounded by holistic support. We are so proud of her.