Still Becoming

My name is Krystle McGilvery, and over the next 12 weeks I'm creating 12 portraits, each one inspired by the real story of a woman who submitted her own words to this project.

I'm doing this to support Abianda, a London-based charity marking 12 years of working with young women and girls affected by criminal exploitation and violence. Abianda does something few services do: it meets young women where they are, removing the barriers that usually stop them from asking for, or receiving, help. As one young woman they've supported put it: "I feel like I am living now, I can breathe."

This project is my contribution to Abianda's 12 for 12 campaign, which is inviting people to do anything built around the number 12 to help mark this milestone and raise vital funds during a genuinely difficult funding climate for the charity sector.

Here's how it works: women are invited to apply and share a challenge they've faced, a strength they've found, and the future they're building for themselves. Each week for 12 weeks, I'll turn one of those stories into a portrait, and I'll share both the portrait and the story across Instagram, LinkedIn and my own platforms, alongside Abianda's channels.

This isn't just a painting project. It's an attempt to make resilience visible, to take stories that are so often hidden or reduced to statistics, and give them the weight, colour and attention they deserve. Every portrait is a small act of "still becoming": proof that growth continues, long after the hardest chapters.

Every donation to this page goes directly to Abianda, funding the frontline support that helps young women move from surviving to, as one participant said, actually living.

If this resonates with you, here's how you can help:

- Donate whatever you can, no amount is too small, and every pound supports Abianda's work directly

- Follow along on LinkedIn and Instagram to meet the women behind each portrait.

- Share this page, the more people who see these stories, the more we can raise.

Thank you for being part of Still Becoming.

Krystle