Lindsay Ziehl(MBE) Highest Honorary Award by the Queen |
Introduction
Lindsay Ziehl is a qualified Therapist majoring in Trauma Therapy. She counselled and assisted victims with Protection Orders, hospital visits, court dates, did referrals for psychiatric evaluations and generated reports for Court Cases where women and children had been sexually violated.
She was recently the Manager of a shelter in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa dedicated to women and their children affected by Domestic Violence where she worked closely with family violence victims for 16 years in a country burdened by a very high rate of violence of this nature. She remains a passionate advocate for the rights of women and children.
Public Responsibility
In her designation as Manager of The Haven, Ms Ziehl’s formal portfolio included Public Relations and Marketing for the organisation, counsellor running for the shelter, and fundraising. She was co-founder of the Port Elizabeth lobby for change charged with the responsibility of, within South Africa, fully supporting the passing of the DNA laws, and presently lobbying to make the Sexual Offenders Register and Violent Offender Register available to the public, respectively. The relevant DNA law was passed in South Africa in 2014.
She has in addition written numerous articles on Family Violence-related issues and is a dynamic, well-known and well-loved public speaker in South Africa, and was invited to share her experiences and knowledge with the Australian Government as well as meeting with the head of family violence for the UK in London, and has been invited back in the future.
Lindsay’s years of experience in public speaking and training has provided many large and small companies, in and around Port Elizabeth, an insight into the very complex area of GBV (Gender Based Violence).
Her experience in GBV has made her somewhat an expert in her field as a public speaker, as well as a trainer.
Awards
Lindsay has been recognised for her work with women and children on many occasions, having received the following awards:
- Paul Harris Fellowship (Rotary International)
- Merit Award : Citizen of the year, (The Herald newspaper)
- Top 101 Most Influential People in S.A. (Simonsvlei)
- Feather Award : Humanitarian of the Year
- The White Ribbon Award : Humanitarian Work
- Finalist : Business Women of the Year (BWASA)
- Jet Humanitarian Aaward (Western Cape)
- Jet Humanitarian Award (South Africa)
- Women of Valour Award 2015 to-date
- The International Humanitarian Ambassador 2015 (Toronto Canada)
- The Washington Humanitarian Award Washington USA. 2015
- MBE Title awarded for her work with vulnerable women in South Africa (HRH Queen Elizabeth 11 July 2015 at Buckingham Palace
- First woman ever in its history, to be invited to speak at the Charles Glass Society