About LITD.C.I.C
Light to the darkness is a community Interest company (LITD C.I.C.) that seeks to bring light, hope, and succor to society’s downtrodden.
LITD C.I.C. provides a range of services for women and families experiencing abuse, trauma, discrimination, mental health issues, and immigration-related issues in Manchester & its Surroundings. We equip women and families with tools such as counseling, advocacy to help reduce the risk of self-harm, harm to others and support their transition, integration, and development within the UK’s society, as well as addressing and championing their daily basis social challenges and experience exchanges among them through organizing social events conferences, workshops, seminars, etc. Since the COVID-19 crisis, these services are provided online through zoom sessions, phone calls, etc. We engage with various support structures and professionals to minimize mental health medical interventions in caring for these vulnerable women from the BAME communities’ support to eradicate abuse and discrimination at all levels.
Our Story
Light in the darkness was founded in May 2018 by a former refugee, Ms. Béatrice Guessie, who knows what it feels like to be tortured mentally, physically, and psychologically in the Uk’s Asylum system—having experienced it firsthand. However, rather than let the experience hold her back in life, she has chosen to be a medium to shine a light on other people who are disadvantaged and have been through similar experiences.
Our Vision
Our vision is to equip disadvantaged individuals and their families with life empowering tools to create a better life and reduce their dependency on governmental agencies. And we plan to achieve this through;
- Striving to educate and train disadvantaged individuals and their families to generate income and keep their minds occupied.
- Changing ideologies and attitudes about low-income and deprived communities require support and services rather than empowerment.
We stand for:
- RESILIENCE: We exemplify the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties.
- INCLUSIVITY: We embrace people who might otherwise be excluded or marginalized, such as BAME communities and those with physical or mental disabilities.
- TRANSPARENCY: We are frank, open, candid, honest, direct, and forthright. What you see is what you get.
- EMPOWERMENT: We believe in the ‘Train a man to fish’ philosophy. We support an individual’s journey of becoming stronger and more confident, especially in controlling their life and claiming their right.
Only in Manchester, our founder’s practical emotional and moral support, including counseling, have already benefited more than 45 people in which some were on mental health drugs and stopped taking them after few weeks of her advocacy and counseling. LITD C.I.C. under her leadership is aiming to adequately champion and addressing those social issues with the vision to equip disadvantaged BAME communities, especially women and their children such as Refugees and Asylum Seekers, with tools to support their transition, integration, and development by highlighting the existing skills they bring to the table and empowering them to contribute to society and the UK economy. For example, just recently, we have been able to help a trained doctor and mother from Africa, with boys aged 16 and 8 who became depressed due to personal reasons. She was referred to psychiatric care and put on anti-depression drugs. Only two weeks after contacting our founder and undergoing emotional and moral support to regain her self-esteem and self-confidence, she was able to stop taking her medications and enter the upwards part to full recovery. Now, she has her job back, and she remains grateful to light in the darkness community.
BAME communities are vulnerable and more exposed to mental health illnesses and COVID-19. Such a project as ours helps prevent such anxieties and depression from escalating to a major crisis in which psychiatrists and hospitalizations would cost the NHS millions of pounds!
Our Partners
