Talk:Helen Bamber

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== Section on Character == WP:BLP states that material in biographies of living people "material requires a high degree of sensitivity". Even though this section has fairly strong secondary sources, in line with WP:BLP, I suggest this section is cut. I wrote this section myself but now think it doesn't add a great deal to the over all article and zooms in on certain alleged aspects of character that can never effectively be put in enough context.

 Character "Bamber is arguably remarkable for being in some ways unremarkable - not an intellectual, not grandly educated, a certified psychologist, a lawyer, or a doctor. Her achievements have been made through passion and fixation. Belton's biography The Good Listener: Helen Bamber, a Life Against Cruelty includes comments from one of Bamber's sons that suggest childhood neglect in the face of Bamber's passion and drive for political work.

She says she was unsure of how to protect her children from knowing the horror of the Holocaust and its impact on their family: I know that my husband and I did pass on something about the secrecy to our children. I know we did try to protect them from the full knowledge of what had happened, and I don't know that I blame myself for that. When one of my sons was very young he asked me whether his grandfather had been shot, and I said 'yes', which was a lie, because he was beaten to death in front of his family. At what age do you say that to a child? I suppose I didn't want them to have the same knowledge that I had when I was growing up"

She says of herself "I wanted to see myself as a very strong person not showing vulnerability, and I don't think this is helpful to people. It can be very irritating, to put it mildly. I get irritated with myself, so it's not surprising others do." Her colleagues have described her as one of the century's great human rights campaigners and "a complete dictator", a driven obsessive who can send her staff mad. Belton describes the paradox of the carer. "You can get a lot of satisfaction from being an omnipotent carer. There's a little bit of God that attaches to it, the way people come to rely on her. She is aware of that element."  Spanglej (talk) 01:49, 1 July 2010 (UTC)

Helen Bamber's greatest contribution, which has yet to be recognized, is in the area of Social Work. Both at the Medical Foundation and the Halen Bamber Foundation, she has applied a psycho-social model that is focusing upon the people's capacity to rebuild their lives; it is multi-cultural and multi-dimensional.

I have worked with Helen Bamber over 17 years at the Medical Foundation. Her work with the survivors of torture and violence has never solely focused upon the psychological recovery, which for her can not only be defined in terms of recovery from the symptoms of the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It is about the survivor returning to his/her community and restructuring a new life, albeit in a new country and under very different circumstances.

Overcoming the past sufferings and rebuilding a new life while facing hostile circumstances, ranging from legal to material, is a difficult task for most of the survivors, recognising this fact, Helen Bamber always focused upon strengthening the coping mechanisms of survivors by employing many different disciplines at once. Moreover, she knew that if the society is remaining hostile at survivors' attempts to build a new life while sympathising with their past sufferings at the same time, the health professionals needed to develop new ways of working: combining different skills such as therapy, social work, providing food and clothing and campaigning for the rights of her clients has indeed made a difference.

Secondly, WP:BLP'nin assertion of her being "a complete dictator" at the discussion section is not correct. During my 17 years work with her, until 2004, I had not actually heard anybody describing her in this way. First of all, she has been a very successful organizer; a gathering point for a group of highly dedicated health professionals and human rights campaigners. She encouraged her staff to develop new ways of working. Learning from clients and integrating these learning back in the treatment process required a democratic working environment.

Her organizational skills were at their best during the founding days or the crisis times. Her shortcomings as a manager had exhibited themselves at later stages but, never in terms of lacking democracy or respect to her staff. Her uncomprimise defense of principles and values of her work, was bound to cause, albeit occasionally, disagreements or unhappy moments, but, during those times, she did defend her point of view very often at her detriment.(Erol Yesilyurt) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Erolys (talk • contribs) 10:28, 3 October 2010 (UTC)


 * Hi Erolys. Thanks for your comments. Please do add your sourced information to the article. It is still at a basic level and Wikipedia welcomes all contributions that meet editing criteria. The details given on the talk page about Helen Bamber may not have chimed with your personal experience, however Wikipedia text is based on whether there is a strong and solid reference can be given, and in this case, they were, coming from the authorised biography of her life and Guardian articles.. The consensus was to not include the details about Helen Bamber in the article, as they did not meet WP:BLP, which is why they were not included in the article, even thought they were strongly sourced. I do hope you can add further detail to the article on missing aspects of Helen's work. Best wishes Span (talk) 17:44, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

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External links modified
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