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It is absolutely OK.  Many people do not pursue a career in academia after their Ph.D and even do a job unrelated to their field of study. I am amongst those people I completed my doctorate in the field of Design for Sustainable Behaviour and I looked at the factors influencing people to repair small electrical items. I took the opportunity during my doctorate to organise repair events, and a festival to engage people with this concept of repair. Then, in my discussion, there were some elements about the impacts of poor design decisions on women's wellbeing and sense of worth. I thought that if I had to focused on violence towards women, I would like to focus on the worst. When I submitted my thesis, I looked for a position in gender-based violence field. I wanted it to be part-time so I could pursue my other passions such as writing, arts, travelling, gardening, appreciating the idle time while looking after my family. I also wanted to work closed from home. Quetzal, a charity bas...

September 8, 2022 - a normal day. I am sitting at my desk. Merlin arrived, ready to help me dismantle the display for the Queen and I, art & craft project. Survivors of childhood sexual abuse at Quetzal created the display to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee, honoured our late patron Sue Townsend and showcased their talents. As we dismantled the display, we discussed the possibility of reusing the artworks when the Queen will pass. Little did we know that it would be on the same day. For Merlin, the 8th of September is a special day full of celebration with the birth of the Virgin Mary and in her hometown back in India, they also had a full day of celebration. As she shared with me the meaning of the day, I thought, yes it is a special day. I returned home under the heavy thunderstorms, entered home, took off my shoes, and walked up the stairs to greet my husband. He announced that the Queen passed. I could not help it. I shed a tear for her family.  Later, I wondered what convers...

 "You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water"  Here are the beautiful words written by Rabindranath Tagore, painter, poet, composer, playwright, philosopher and social reformer. I read them in the preface written by Albert Chaitram Persaud, Founder CAREIF for the report "Improving the Mental Health of South Asian Populations in the United Kingdom" written by Gnanapragasam S.N. and Menon K.V. (2021) on behalf of CAREIF and Ethnic Inclusion Foundation. One of the key recommendations in the report is to ''provide a culturally competent workforce with appropriate cultural competency training so that care provided appreciates cultural (religious/spiritual/faith), historical and gendered influences of South Asians''. While further training is always welcomed, it should not stop organisations to jump right in engaging with communities from various ethnicities, cultures and backgrounds. As humans, we have the innate ability to cr...

For the first time in many years, I considered returning to the corporate sector so I can gather all the learnng that I ne

What happened this week? I published many resources online for people to pick upon and disseminate.  Our Quetzal Stories of Change event and the list of artists and organisations who will display at the event is on Quetzal Website . On Monday I will send the invitations to all and disseminate across the stratosphere. I also shared the results of our community discussion on what we can do to raise awareness in BAME communities about the trauma of childhood sexual abuse. I had a great meeting with the team if Let's talk about sexual violence about creating a bigger impacts with their exhibition both in Leicester and Liverpool by paying to a pot of fundings and determining some key activities. Watch this space! I had a great conversation with a funder about the questions to ask oneself when applying fundings . To give you a bit of a back story, I applied for some funding to tour the exhibition in Leicestershire. We received only part of the funding to support with our counselling act...

Mentoring is critical for leadership development. This week I was reminded of the latter after meeting with my mentor. She has been supporting me for the last 3-4 months in defining further ehat type of leader I want to be and how I want to relate to people around me. It supports with confidence, greater trust in your decision and give a great sounding board when wondering how to navigate a specific issue. They share experience and expertise to guide us in our next steps towards greatness. My mentor suggested that I shall go through a small exercise called the Golden Circle introduced by Simon Sinek to define my why and revisited from time to time. She also said that it is a great exercise to do with a team to ensure vision and purpose are aligned. It became clear to both of us that I had many projects and I needed to think more deeply about my purpose and it will help me to better redefine my relationships with others. Do you have a mentor? How do you find it? Have you use Simon Sinek...

Quetzal is a charity supporting female survivors of childhood sexual abuse aged 16 and above living in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland More about the project visit Quetzal website Read our latest blog posts related to the project Quetzal on social media Instagram Facebook Twitter Linkedin Update by Marlefeed Marlefeed Projects at Quetzal 2019 Breaking the Silence Initiative 2019-2022 Service Improvement Quetzal Heartbeat 2020 Event production Community Awareness-Raising Session Programme Breaking The Silence Initiative Resource design and development Self-Help Guide Quetzal Website Fundraising Campaigns Crush the Hush Covid-19 Edition Communication Campaign Let's Talk About Sexual Violence Online Exhibition Launch White Ribbon 2020 Service Improvement Lamplight 2021 Event Production Bhensexplaining Kitty Party Breaking the Silence Key Learning Webinar Community discussion about what we can do better to support South Asian Female Survivors Ways To Wellbeing 9 session online pr...

I was asked to provide an update about My Monday Email Run It is now my third week sending only emails on Monday. It remains very rewarding, though it is long stretch of work. Today, I started replying to emails at 6am this morning. It is now 9pm and I am on the last stretch dealing with my personal emails. Why did it take me all that long? Well today, I changed slightly my schedule. I had a meeting with a coach to support Leicester Fixers - Durgha from Flow Finder (a bit about this in this Last Update ). It meant that 3hours of my time were dedicated to travelling, chatting, planning and more.  Writing emails on Mondays also include writing articles, newsletters as well as updating websites including Quetzal and Marlefeed plus doing a bit of design work. It is required since I want to update my teams about upcoming events and resources to share. I am working towards writing most of the content to send on Monday - On Thursday instead so I can reduce the workload for Monday. Once ...

Quetzal Stories of Change Exhibition opens on the 18th September 2021 . I am well looking forward to pulling it all together. One of my goals is to tour all or part of the exhibition in various venues in and out of Leicester.  In this process, I identified some funding to support the tour as well as venues that could host the exhibition. This week on Wednesday in particular, I had a field trip and visited the Marlene Reid Centre , a long standing community centre in Coalville. On the Wednesday, they host a food market with a cooking station, a café, they also sell clothes uniform. They invited me to fill a bag of veg for £1, browse the charity and their furniture shop and even snacks on some lovely Turkish food. Stories were shared with me about how women in the area used the centres and how significant it is to educate about trauma, sexual and domestic violence. They had in the past training with Women's Aid s uprooting female survivors on their journey. Anywoo, we agreed on the ...

Dr Rob Watson interviewed me as part of Leicester Stories series #BuildBackBetter in July 2021.  Prior to the interview, he sent me few questions for me to prepare the interview and start thinking about what it means to Build Back Better post-pandemic. In the following post, I answer one of the questions augmented after reflecting upon the interview R: I’d like to know what conversations and discussions people living and working in Leicester had during the lockdown, especially when these conversations started to focus on the idea of Building Back Better? Through the lockdown, my discussion were upon the tools available to people to support their mental health and connections with others. In a trauma-informed programme, the first steps are stabilisation and regulation. In other words, if someone is in a state of shock, the first step is to ground them and help them manage their emotions. In our community, we experienced first hand what it is to be in a state of shock during the pand...

A good cold helps readjusting priorities. Your mind is such in a state of confusion that they are only few things that you can possibly hold onto to get some sense of grounding. Did I sleep this week more than ever and somewhat been more productive than ever. How just changing the way I deal with my emails. My experiment dealing with all my emails on Monday is paying off. This week I was able to start writing an important piece of work that I have been postponing for ages and continuing some home transformation projects. I have way more time than ever before by choosing not to interrupt myself with emails during the week. I feel that I have more control over my work and this feels great. The extra time did make me feel at loss at some level and I am currently readjusting my priorities and bringing some new things in. At Quetzal I have been writing a funding application to tour Quetzal Stories of Change for people across Leicestershire to learn more about sexual violence. I will visit s...

Dr Rob Watson interviewed me as part of Leicester Stories serie #BuildBackBetter in July 2021. Prior to the interview, he sent me few questions for me to prepare the interview and start thinking about what it means to Build Back Better post-pandemic. In the following post, I will take time to answer the questions I was sent and augment my response with some of the reflections I had through the interview. R: I’d like to find out what we are still learning from the experience of the lockdown, particularly here in Leicester? M: At Quetzal, the lockdown taught us and invited us to reflect on the following: What does it take to be a community that is not defined by a set location? What can we do to mobilise our partners, volunteers and collaborators from remote location? What does it takes to disseminate information and make it accessible to people who may not have access to the online world? What other type of event can we develop that keep ourselves and other safe? What special provision ...

  I’d like to find out what we are still learning from the experience of the lockdown, particularly here in Leicester? From Quetzal perspective, the lockdown taught us what it takes to be a community that is not defined by a set location, what can we do to mobilise our partners, volunteers and collaborators from remote location, what it takes to disseminate information and make it accessible to people who may not have access, what other type of event can we develop that keep ourselves and other safe, what special provision do we need to make to support better some female survivors, that crisis are great opportunity to reach greater level of consciousness and how important is to cre about our mental health, then that media are so important social mnedia local media to share informatiom between people I’d like to know what conversations and discussions people living and working in Leicester had during the lockdown, especially when these conversations started to focus on the idea of B...

This week many changes occurred First, I returned to Marle's Feed for updates and writing. Last week, I let go of Instagram to update on my weekly progress to recentralise my thoughts on my main blog. I started this blog back in 2012. There are probably more than 400 entries dealing with projects such as Positive Money and the Money workshop, Footpaths Leicester, The Green Festival of Making and Mending as well as Leicester Fixers, plus plethora of other writings. I did not write much about the Breaking the Silence Initiative at Quetzal. Though I intend to update the blog with past entries.  The return was motivated by conversations with my uncle, Emile Biti Abi, author and thinker, recently published author Joyce Henry and my dear friend and artist Kajal Nisha Patel from Lightseekers. I thought let's consolidate and integrate all my writings on one central platforms. The second important change is dealing with all my emails and online communication with collaborators on the M...

If you’d like to follow my work online here’s where you can find me: Marle on Twitter You can follow me  @DrMarle_Di  where I post mainly about Quetzal. Marle on Instagram On my Instagram, @Drmarle.di Marle on Youtube Few videos of projects can be found here

Excerpt: Dr  Marie Lefebvre from Quetzal on the  Decentered Media Podcast  discussed with Jo hn Coster  and  Dr Rob Watson  Community Solutions for breaking the silence about the trauma of childhood sexual abuse. Click here to listen the podcast  Together, on the podcast, we explored how through creative storytelling, each one of us in our own capacity can help in breaking the silence about childhood sexual abuse and empower people to eventually find their voice and contribute to our community and society. With the extended lockdown happening in Leicester, it is primordial than each of us find ways to communicate valuable information to people that will support their mental and physical health, to empower each one of us with strength to voice our needs and concerns. At Quetzal, we deliver counselling services to support women in breaking the bars and psychological cages of the trauma of childhood sexual abuse. A part of my job at ...

A reflection from a Mixed Raced Black Post-Doctorate who started since July 2019  a discussion with her academic institution about race-based trauma and the experience of BAME academics, and how the murder of George Floyd prompted more actions and reflections on the role of university in supporting BAME staff and students as her first attempt for a  productive  exchange failed through. When George Floyd died, the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement grew, all the news and social media platforms became a constant noise of information related to systemic racism, police brutality and wishes for a better world. I wondered what would be my role and contribution. I am very fortunate to work for a  trauma-informed charity in Leicester  that trains and informs their staff and volunteers about how events outside of our control can trigger emotions around unprocessed trauma. So, my first move was to take care of my mental health. Subsequently, I chose not to attend any...