IACS’s Approach to Crisis and Care
Like the phones of the other IACS staff, Tara’s phone can be found ringing every other minute. With tousled hair and a purposeful stride, she moves from one call to the next, juggling everything from crisis support to guiding small business owners through uncertainties. At IACS, crisis support involves a network of services including healthcare access, support for survivors of domestic and sexual abuse, and relief for families and entrepreneurs navigating instability.
Crisis cases involving domestic violence saw an upsurge during the Covid-19 pandemic. Cultural taboos and separate spaces for work and family held back many women from contacting non-profits like IACS until the lockdown. Tara explains, “In 2020, our phones wouldn’t stop ringing as women kept reporting these cases to us.” Incidentally, it was around the same time that the UN launched a campaign called the “Shadow Pandemic,” raising awareness on the alarming rise in cases of domestic violence worldwide. Amidst this surge of cases, it was Noori’s call that stayed with Tara.
One of Tara’s first crisis cases at IACS involved helping a woman called Noori. At first, Noori was scared and unable to verbalize her feelings. Her husband had been arrested one morning, following a school counsellor’s call to the police. He was later charged with buying and selling child pornography, and the sexual assault of his own daughter and wife.
Noori had moved to the US on a dependent visa, placing her trust in her husband, whom she knew as a kind, well-educated, and devout man. It was therefore hard for Noori to recognize her husband’s abuse. As Noori’s case manager, Tara’s role involved offering a safe space for Noori for the truth to emerge. Recounting her memory of the case, Tara reminisces, “There was a lot of push back from Noori at the beginning. It was excruciating for her to acknowledge that her husband had sexually abused both their daughter and Noori. I had to earn Noori’s trust. The trauma doesn’t always speak right away. You must listen to what’s unspoken.
Over eight months, Noori shared fragments of incidents — flashbacks — that she had buried or silently accepted. Her upbringing had taught her to endure as a woman and forgive her husband for the sake of peace. It took time to make Noori recognize her husband’s abuse, file a domestic violence report, and finally take steps to support herself and her daughter.”
IACS supported Noori and her daughter for three years. It paid for Noori’s training course, so she could find employment in a bank; covered her legal fees when filing for domestic abuse and connected her to legal clinics and housing support to prevent foreclosure of her home.
For Tara, the story didn’t end there — as there are other women like Noori in need of saving and support. But, with crisis response cases, such as Noori’s, come sleepless nights, emotional toll, and the need for therapy for case workers like Tara.
IACS doesn't just support the women undergoing these crises, but also stands behind the case workers, like Tara, who carry their stories, fears, and futures. It is common for crisis workers to undergo vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, burnout, and secondary PTSD. Recognizing the emotional toll of this work, IACS invests in trauma-informed care and mental health resources for its staff. In doing so, the organization maintains a support system that helps both the survivors and the crisis workers who assist them.
