What words can describe the devastation following an arrest? The terror of a child whose father has been taken away; the anguish of an elderly mother who has lost her son; and the desperation of a pregnant wife left to fend without her husband. Trauma and the struggle to survive what follows can often cause the broken hearted to become withdrawn, making those most in need of embracing and healing even more difficult to reach.
This Ramadhan, over 200 families affected by counter-terror measures will be grieving in poverty, isolation and fear. These households are neither different nor far from our own:
Just next door, a single mother is struggling to put food on the table for iftar, as bailiffs harass her family each day. Her children, bullied at school, are feeling the loss of their father more acutely in a month where families normally come together.