Leaving is rarely one decision. It is dozens of them, made over months, usually while still living with the person causing the harm. Most services are built for the moment of crisis, which means they arrive after the hardest part is already over. HealBridge works earlier in that sequence, and stays later.

We are a Nigerian organisation working with women and children leaving domestic abuse. We are not a shelter, though we can find one. We are not a law firm, though we can find a lawyer. What we do is hold the sequence together: the call at two in the morning, the transport that gets her out, the protection order, the school place, the job, the tenancy in her own name, and the year after all of that, when the attention has moved on and the decision to stay out is quietly made or unmade.

We are not here to judge anyone’s marriage or to tell anyone what to do about it. Most of the women who come to us stay, at least at first. That is not a failure, and it is not ours to correct. Where a woman stays, we help her be safer where she is. Where she leaves, we help her stay left. The support does not depend on which she chooses, and it does not stop if she changes her mind.

Two principles run through all of it. Her safety is decided by her, not by us, and nothing is reported to anyone without her asking. And nobody who comes to HealBridge is photographed, named or quoted anywhere, including on this site.

• Somewhere safe tonight, and the transport to get there

• Protection orders, custody, and replacing the documents abuse destroys

• A job, an income, school places, and a home she holds the key to