Why EVE?

On Friday 15th May, 2015 Nene Valley Christian Family Refuge became Eve, but, “Why?” I hear you ask.  Christine Morgan, CEO explains more.

In the 8 months I have been CEO of Nene Valley Christian Family Refuge, I have learned so much about the effects of domestic violence and abuse on individuals and society. One thing I have learned is that domestic abuse is dynamic, it evolves, develops and progresses, and therefore our approach to it must be dynamic too, we must evolve, develop and progress our services and our responses to domestic violence and abuse to be able to meet its challenges and the needs of victims and survivors.

Part of our evolving is the Launch of Eve – Rebranding Nene Valley Christian Family Refuge.  We have been listening. Listening to people who tell us that the name Nene Valley Christian Family Refuge is cumbersome, confusing and does not say what we do. A few months ago I came into contact with a number of marketing and branding professionals who said they would work with us to help us rebrand. So, never an organisation to look a gift horse in the mouth, we came to the decision that ‘now’ is time to revitalise our image and brand. And so we are launching our new name, mission and brand. From now onwards we will be known as Eve, and will be known for Transforming Lives Affected by Domestic Abuse. Eve will be our working name; our legal name will continue to be Nene Valley Christian Family Refuge.

But why Eve?  Eve was the first woman. She was created by God out of Adam’s rib, next to his heart to be protected by him. She was created equal to Adam. Eve was the first daughter of the living God, she was the first wife and the first mother, and hers was the first family on earth.

Eve is ‘every woman’ and in fact, every human. Eve’s DNA exists in a direct, unbroken, maternal line, of all currently living humans, This is the most recent woman from whom all living humans today descend, in an unbroken line, on their mother’s side, and through the mothers of those mothers, and so on, back until all lines converge on one person.

The name Eve means ‘To breathe life’. As an organisation we want to breathe new life into lives affected by domestic abuse, so transforming those lives by engaging them in educational and therapeutic activities and interventions, helping survivors and their families to regain hope and develop the resilience and transformative skills they need to maintain their freedom and security.

It is our belief that ‘Transforming lives affected by domestic abuse’ requires us to:
• Enable and empower women and children to recognise and understand what abuse is and how they can choose to live lives free from abuse.
• Enable women to recognise and understand the effects of domestic violence and abuse on them and on their children.
• Raise awareness of domestic violence and abuse in the wider community – to open the eyes of family, friends, neighbours and colleagues to what might be happening behind closed doors.
• Raise awareness of the different cultural ways that women and girls are abused so that this too can be stopped and communities can be re-educated as to the real value of women in society.

So what about men?
While Eve’s primary services are to work with and for women and children who are survivors of domestic violence and abuse, Eve wants to and will work with men in the near future. Eve believes in family and therefore we believe in men. We are not anti-men and we want the women we work with to understand that they can achieve healthy relationships with loving, caring and supportive men if that is what they want.