Patricia
Patricia was born in Mozambique and lived with her grandmother in a rural village, in what she described as the bush, attending a local school. The civil war ended this and she left to live with a family in the city to escape the danger from the guerrillas they shoot the cars, they burned the cars, they burned the houses
. At sixteen, with a year's experience of being a nanny, but no further education, she walked across the border into the neighbouring country they were still killing people on the railways, so I remember we were walking at night
. This included walking past dead bodies left lying in the bush. She worked in a shop and became pregnant at nineteen with her boyfriend's baby. Having lived on her own with his parents she eventually followed him to South Africa, where he had gone to find employment.
Patricia located him and found herself in an abusive relationship, which she couldn't leave because she was financially dependent upon him
"He abused me in every ways, but I had to put up with it because I couldn't afford my own place."
She found work in a Portuguese restaurant, where she learned English, and managed to leave the relationship. She found other work and a relationship with an English man working in South Africa who she eventually married and came to live in England with. They had another child and Patricia settled taking English classes, to improve her English, and a beauty therapy course at a local college.
The difficulty of bringing up a child that was not his own resulted in family violence and Chrysalis gave information and support to help her manage the violence that she was coping with:
"...so I went in to them, so they was helping me. We go down and we talk about it, and we talk about things, how to cope and how to prevent violence. There's no cure for it, you can only prevent it."
Chrysalis helped her with information and support to take this stepand recently provided the money to take her and her two children to MacDonald's as a birthday treat for her eldest son - this was a treat that she couldn't afford and lifted all their spirits.
"...sometimes I feel like they are family. If I'm upset sometimes, or I want to talk to someone I talk to them and it makes me feel better. Yea, I go down and go and talk, or cry, whatever, or punch the wall.They lets me do it, so it helps"
Patricia is in the process of leaving her beauty therapy course at college to take work in a care home because she couldn't afford to study. As a single parent she couldn't pay the mortgage, childcare and household expenses. She hopes that this work might enable her to take NVQ qualifications and to eventually become a social worker.
Chrysalis sought assistance from local MP Bob Waring in support of Patricia's application to reside in the UK and, within months, the matter was resolved successfully.