Should I contact the helpline and what should I expect?

If you are concerned, we are here to listen and help. We are here for everyone, regardless of age, gender, sexuality or faith. Our national helpline is a safe and confidential service.

If you are concerned, we are here to listen and help. We are here for everyone, regardless of age, gender, sexuality or faith. Our national helpline is a safe and confidential service, which supports over 2,500 victims every year.

Should I contact the helpline?

We believe that every experience is valuable and that it’s important to get help as soon as possible. If you’re not sure if you need support, but still want someone to talk to about what you’re experiencing, we recommend that you contact us.

People contact Karma Nirvana for many different reasons:

Some are being pressured to get married
Some fear bringing shame on their families
Some have been emotionally manipulated or physically abused
Some are worried about being disowned
Some are trying to leave home
Some have been living in a forced marriage for years
Some are concerned for their safety

You can remain anonymous when you call our helpline, and our calls are not recorded. We will be able to see your phone number, however you can choose to hide this from us if you prefer. You can also choose to use a fake name, but please try to remember the name you use. We offer both long and short-term support, so if you’d like to call us again, we’d be happy to take your call.

What should I expect when I contact you?

At Karma Nirvana, all calls and emails to our helpline are confidential. We never share information with anyone, other than in exceptional circumstances, for example, we may on occasion have a duty to notify emergency services if we believe someone is at risk of serious harm or if we receive information that a child is being abused or neglected.
Even in these scenarios, we never share information with your family, and information will only be passed to the appropriate authorities. You will be told this in a message when you call the helpline.
We do our best to answer all calls within 55 seconds. If we can’t, you will go through to our voicemail service, and we will call you back when it’s safe to do so. If you leave a message, please tell us your name and number, and the safest time for us to call you back. If you choose to email us instead, we aim to respond within 48 hours.
When you call the Helpline, you will speak to someone who is trained and experienced. We understand the complexities around Honour Based Abuse, and we will listen and offer emotional and practical support.
Our helpline offers the opportunity to have a safe, open and honest conversation with someone experienced, who will be patient and try to fully understand your situation, without any risk of anyone else finding out.
Our helpline team will be able to tell you if what you’re experiencing is Honour Based Abuse, as well as options you have.
We take a trauma-informed response with all our calls, so you can expect to feel heard and understood while talking to us.
We will give you the space to say what you need, and there will be no pressure to answer every question.
We aim to ask questions to build a full picture about you, and ensure we fully understand your situation, which we use to create a support plan for you.
While we will give you suggestions for what you can do next, it is always your choice whether you wish to take these on board, and we will never force you to act on this.

Regardless of your situation, we will be patient as you explain what is happening, and we will ask questions to help us understand your situation. You can ask any questions you have about Honour Based Abuse, your situation or Karma Nirvana. We may ask for contact details if we need to follow up with you, however you can decline to give details if you choose.

Will the helpline understand my situation?

The team has extensive experience with many different faiths and cultures, and we are a by-and-for service with a diverse team. This means we have lived experience of various cultures and religions as well as Honour Based Abuse.

When you call the Helpline, you will speak to someone who is trained and experienced, who understands the complexities around Honour Based Abuse. Our helpline offers the opportunity to have a safe, open and honest conversation with someone experienced, who will be patient and try to fully understand your situation, without any risk of anyone else finding out.

While we understand you may have concerns about the ethnicity, race or religion of your call handler, please know that their background does not affect their ability to understand your situation, as all members are rigorously trained to appreciate the complexities and nuances of different cultural backgrounds, and are equally capable of identifying and handling Honour Based Abuse, regardless of your background.

Our helpline team will decline to comment on their personal background and will not be able to transfer you to another team member with a background of your choice. We will never share information about you to anyone else, and all calls are treated as highly confidential.