Making charity count – Memiah support Women’s Aid

Emma Hilton -

Today, we look at why Memiah have pledged to support Women’s Aid.

Figures published by Women’s Aid at the end of last year revealed that a huge number of domestic violence services are under-resourced, under-funded and in a state of crisis.

As it stands an estimated 1.5 million women experience domestic violence every year, with 2 women killed each week by a current or previous partner. Despite these figures suggesting urgent action is required, the sector is near to breaking point, with cutbacks occurring in all areas.

The figures show that:

  • Across the 150 organisations that responded, 112 specialist posts were lost in 2013, with the majority cut due to a reduction in funding.
  • On the survey’s “snapshot” day, which occurred 27 June 2013, 103 children and 155 women were turned away from refuges in England.

Commenting on the issue, chief executive of Women’s Aid Polly Neate said: “Specialist gender-specific domestic violence services are reaching a breaking point”.

Neate went onto say that the government have an opportunity here to reduce the number of women and children who are hurt or abused if they are willing to put adequate funding into place.

Though the government are said to have put aside £40m to support and fund the necessary local services and nationwide helplines, figures show that prosecutions have decreased by over 10% since specialist support units and police started to experience cuts.

So how can we help?

Women’s Aid currently provide support to more than 350 domestic and sexual violence services up and down the country, and in addition to this they also run a 24-hour helpline and an online “Survivor’s Forum”.

The Survivor’s Forum is a unique and safe online space, in which women can seek help and share their personal experiences. This service has proved to be fundamental in the healing process of the women who use it and it reaches thousands of women every year (51,000 visits per annum).

Here at Memiah we understand and promote the need for the provision of online support services (after all, that’s how Memiah was born), which is why we are delighted to be able to offer our support to Women’s Aid in the form of a £1000 charitable donation. We know this donation and all the others made to Women’s Aid will help to ensure that abused women and children continue to receive the very highest standard of support.

Wishing you all a happy New Year,

The Memiah Team

Statistics sourced from BBC News.