About This Blog

Anbu (அன்பு) loosely translates to love, in Tamil. It's the word our work is built on, and it's the reason this space exists. We raise awareness for adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse in the Tamil community, through advocacy and holistic support, and by acknowledging that awareness doesn't grow in silence.

The writing here embodies our practice at ANBU: dismantling harmful notions around silence and shame with survivors rooted at the centre.

Sometimes, survival is spoken about like a finish line but your story does not close when the danger you experienced ends. This blog wants to explore what follows surviving abuse- the parts that often go unacknowledged and the experiences that survivors carry beyond initial harm, through their lifetimes.

We believe survivors' lived experiences, and the insights of advocates working alongside them, are invaluable to building the strategies, approaches, and solutions the Tamil community still needs. 

This blog centres those lived experiences as expertise, and holds space for language, education and creative practice that pushes back against the silences that too often surround sexual violence and abuse.

This is a space for the deeply powerful work of rebuilding trust, connection, strength, knowledge, identity, and self. This blog exists to explore the truth of survival: that it is slow, that it is non-linear, and that this is how healing moves.

You'll hear from our team: therapists, health professionals, students, practitioners, advocates, educators, artists, writers, organisers, people who've built their careers around understanding trauma, and people who understand it from having lived it. Different fields, different backgrounds, coming together with the shared belief that survivors deserve ongoing conversation, trauma-informed focus on their experiences, honest reflection, and spaces built with them in mind.

Some of what you'll find here will be practical and some will be creative (poetry, reflection, conversation). Come back to it however and whenever you need to.

Our founding piece, What Happens to a Survivor, After They Survive, navigates the discomfort of healing and recognises the ‘unremarkable’ parts of recovery as crucial and valued.

Thank you for being here.