Our First Call: Moving against Domestic Violence
Context: Summer 2017, back in the day, when we first began our life as a removalist, we were driving a small Toyota Hiace Van (it’s like a goget van). We mostly did smallish jobs, like moving a fridge or a sofa.
The ‘Call’: After a finished day, when scrolling through job offers on Airtasker, we found a task for an extremely low amount. “2 bedroom apartment — Urgent move: $40”.
We very quickly realized it was a single mother, who was in high distress and needed help. She was running from DV.
The job/the help and challenges: It didn’t take us too long to arrive there. We didn’t have all the needed tools, protection pads, nor were mentally prepared — God it was really hard… I remember coming home after the move. Have you ever felt like crying, angry, and entirely empty at the same time?
It’s hard to imagine how hard it is for anyone running away from ‘Home’. Seriously, that move put to test all of our capabilities. You want to be supportive, attentive, careful, and overall you want to help them get out of there.
What I always tell people: Every-single-case is different. It’s all different families, all different scenarios, all tough in their own. This was a family of 3, Mum, daughter, and son. All of them lovely, but hurting.
Coming to the end of the day, everything finished and transported we drove back home. Me and Esteban on the van, I don’t think we talked much… can’t really remember what we said to each other, but pretty sure it wasn’t more than a couple of weeks that we were at it again.
