Bi-monthly
Another newsletter? You may be thinking. That's right, two months ago we sent out the previous one. So much is happening that we are making a (shorter) newsletter a bit more often, about bi-monthly. Thank you for sympathising with our ministry!
Documentary The Conspiracy
The EO is currently broadcasting a series on conspiracy thinking. Aline Terpstra, affiliated with Friends of Esthers was asked to participate some time ago; after careful consideration, she did not do so because it might harm the recovery process of the survivors we help. We are happy to explain this more widely in a article on our site.
We are not the only ones to object to this documentary, which barely takes victims of severe abuse seriously. Other organisations working against organised sexual abuse even asked EO not to broadcast the documentary when the series was announced because it would harm their work.
An email was also sent to the EO following the libel in episode 3, you can read the text of that here reading. We are still working on a substantive response to the documentary.
Collaboration
We also wrote an article to explain why we only collaborate with individuals and not organisations. It seems so logical to work together in this already complicated field, right? But here too, the recovery of survivors is at the forefront of our minds. That recovery could be severely dented if we were to collaborate in a project with an organisation within which a survivor would know someone as a perpetrator. Read quietly our broader interpretation here and move into the so-other-world of a survivor.
We do try to learn from what we see other organisations share or fail to do and share our experiences on our websites
Supervision for practitioners
How inconvenient we feel that we have had to put a stop to new applicants for help!!! What we can still do for them is advise or get their practitioners started in a one-off supervision session. In some cases, a supervision programme is possible afterwards. This is a small group that meets once every 8 weeks. Do you know or are you a practitioner who works with an applicant from srm? Welcome for an exploratory discussion!
We are so eager to contribute from our expertise.
Churches information evening
On 30 September (Elburg region) and 25 November (Amsterdam region), we will hold a broad information evening about our work. Be welcome and/or invite acquaintances. Perhaps you live in Groningen but know someone in Amsterdam who would like to point out the evening.
How wonderful it would be if together we could increase the carrying capacity of Friends of Esthers. There is such a need for networking friends!
Such an evening could also be given in your own area if you join us in thinking about how to invite churches and individual Christians.
Download the invitation here
Minicourse 2.0
An information evening often makes a big impression on attendees; but the evening is too short to explain how simple, beautiful and, of course, uncomfortable it is to learn to be a network friend for a survivor.
Therefore, as an intermediate step, a mini-course of two evenings has been developed. In it, we will go deeper into (C)DIS, SRM and trauma processing, as well as some real-life situations.
The next one is in Rijssen on 9 September and 15 October and 2 and 9 December in Amsterdam; register via lichtoplevens@proton.me
Own bank account
If you already support our (ANBI) Friends of Esthers Foundation: please note our bank account is IBAN: NL 47 BUNQ 2068 8889 39. Thank you for helping survivors in their recovery process!
The route through the 4Justice foundation is being phased out; it was helpful at our start.
Words of Jesus the Messiah help give us direction and perseverance; Like His statements:
Blessed are the mourners, for they shall be comforted
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy
Agenda
- Tuesday 9 September & 14 October: Minicourse Rijssen (the second date is a continuation of the first date)
- Tuesday 30 September: Information evening for churches and other interested parties Elburg.
- Tuesday, 7 October: Information evening Amsterdam.
- Tuesday 28 October: Information evening for churches in Amsterdam.
- Tuesday, November 4: Information evening Friesland
- Tuesday 2 and 9 December: Minicourse Amsterdam (the second date is a continuation of the first date)
(these dates are also on our website read back)
Warm regards and thanks for your interest in Friends of Esthers!
The core team of Friends of Esthers
English 
Dutch