Leaving an abusive partner takes courage and determination. To walk away from your home and belongings with just a couple of bags and your most precious cargo – your children – is incredibly hard, but for some women, it is the only way out.

They flee their partner or husband because they know that to stay would endanger not only their life and well being, but that of their children. Some women take years to come to this point, the consequence of living with an abusive partner who has lowered her self-esteem and confidence.

The lucky women find a Refuge, literally refuge. They find peace and safety. They find others who have been through similar, and they find a new start for themselves and their children.

The children suffer. The children who both feared and loved their fathers. Who sought to become invisible, to protect their mother or their sibling. Who left their homes, their schools, their friends and their belongings.
In these times of austerity, Women’s Refuges around the country struggle more than ever to survive.

And two wonderful women have decided to give them a hand.

I wrote about Nickelbooks some time ago, about her fight to save her independent children’s bookstore from closure. Nickel is now putting time into a new project, along with a fellow concerned mother.

Nickel wishes to organise donations to a Women’s Refuge close to Nickelbooks, to give the children the gift of escape into a fictional world.

The Refuge equips each room with a Welcome Pack with some food and toiletries, along with some age-appropriate toys for the children.

StorySenders would like to help them add a book to each Welcome Pack. Eventually they hope to be able to donate a book as birthday presents for children who celebrate during their time in the Refuge.

Nickel is ‘an independent bookshop owner, has a young child herself and is hugely interested in forging relations with this refuge from a non-profit point of view (for example by arranging to visit the refuge, set up Story Times for the children etc) Nickel’s bookshop already offers very competitive prices and low mark-up costs, the paypal fees and tax will be paid by her as with any other purchase’

This is not (yet) a registered charity, but both women hope that if it is successful, it could be expanded to other areas of the country.

If you would like to support women and children who have escaped from an abusive home, please donate.
If you cannot afford to donate at present, please pass this information on to others. Thank you.

http://nickelbooks.co.uk/#/storysenders/4568624060

StorySenders logo used with kind permission from StorySenders