As CEO of the Homicide Victims’ Support Group (Aust), Martha Jabour has received many awards, but nothing sparks pride quite like the arrival of a birthday, wedding or christening invitation. “They’re all signs that life has begun seeping back into someone’s world,” Jabour explains. “When people are feeling stronger, there’s often a tendency to want to give something back to the organisation or the people within who have helped them to reimagine and recreate a new life without their loved one in it.
” Jabour has headed HVSG, an organisation that provides support, education and advocacy for families of murder victims, since it was founded in 1993 and says it’s been her experience that grief after murder is never “one size fits all”. “Some are comfortable being stuck in their grief, some will partake in small projects, some will turn to organisations such as ours and ask to assist with our newsletter or volunteer in our New Leaf Op Shop because they know doing good will help them to feel good in turn.” And some others? They go ahead and create whole movements.
“Hate only hurts the person doing the hating” Ken Marslew, 80 “It took me a couple of years to go from wanting to get even to wanting to make a difference.” Credit: WonderLight Photography “The cops who turned up at my door in 1994 weren’t much older than Michael, my son who was then 18. I was confused at first, unable to understand why they were telling me about a shooting during an a.
