There Is An Alternative: How S.T.O.R.M Began
S.T.O.R.M was set up solely by myself, four years ago. The reason I started S.T.O.R.M was because I was a mother subjected to domestic violence and had to flee my home and sleep in my car for three days. Pregnant and with my four children, I was placed in a refuge, with just a bag of clothes and documents. After this I was placed in temporary accommodation and I started to get on with my life. I was then offered an amazing job to go to America to be a director of a well known makeup company, this would be an excellent start for me and my family, but I decided to set up my own organisation called S.T.O.R.M as when I was talking to other mothers they were going through similar problems that I had been through with no help from anyone. I set up S.T.O.R.M. I started with four women and now we are working with over 500 single mothers and women who we empower.
STORM is a Voluntary Community based organisation that aims to support single/lone parents and women back into employment through Family Learning support.
As my life went on, I got a phone call from my daughter saying my son had got stabbed in the back while he was trying to stop a man beating up his girlfriend. I was yet again devastated. I then set up “There is an Alternative” to guns, gangs and knifes to steer young people away from guns and gangs. Now I am working with over 200 young people, i really want to start my “off the Streets” project, to empower and train up all these gang members as leaders and not followers.
Read the stories of people's lives
changed by S.T.O.R.M
As the country reels at the wave of senseless killings among teenagers, one former member tells the SUNDAY NEWS why the gang life is attractive. High on cannabis, Danielle Munroe hid in the shadows of her local train station, stroking the blade in her pocket for reassurance. Spotting a woman on a mobile phone, she crept up behind her and tore the phone from her ear.
"I would hear the person gasp in horror as i charged away," says Danielle, 19. "They'd scream and shout. Sometimes they'd cry. But i never looked back. As far as i was concerned I'd hit the jackpot".
Its hard to believe petite, softly spoken Danielle spent her early teens terrorizing her community. Now she's turned her life around, but less than a year ago she was a member of a fearsome gang in South London known as SW11.
Her life of crime included errands for drug dealers, muggings, shoplifting, driving stolen cars , drug taking, even armed robbery.
Danielle knew she was wasting her life, but says: "The gang gave me what i needed. I felt like no one could touch me. I wasn't at school and had no qualifications. I thought mugging and shoplifting was the only way i could
survive..."
South Africa
Gang members who say poverty is an excuse for a life of crime could be shown how privileged they really are on a trip to the ghettos of South Africa.
Marie Hanson, whose teenage son has been stabbed wants to take 10 South London teenagers to Soweto, Johannesburg, to work in Aids hospitals and with youth groups there.
