Four dedicated Cootamundra ladies have been working hard to create essential packs of hygiene products for victims of domestic violence within the district.
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Fifty seven handbags have been filled with items and will be distributed by Cootamundra community health nurse Veronica Ward over the coming weeks to women’s crisis accommodation centres in the district.
In the bags are hand cream, face cream, body lotion, cosmetics, toothbrushes, toothpaste, hairbrushes, deodorant and luxury items such as scarves and costume jewellery pieces.
This latest project follows a successful campaign by the ladies, all members of the VIEW Club, to deliver similar packages to women in drought-stricken areas of Queensland, in a venture known as ‘Drought Angels’.
After these packages headed north the ladies wanted to continue to help and looked for another area of need.
With no ‘safe house’ in Cootamundra for victims of domestic violence, women in need of crisis accommodation are referred by police to houses in Young, Wagga or Tumut.
VIEW president Helen Eccleston thanked the community for their support in donating handbags, most new with tags or unused, as well as all of the goodies to fill them.
She said the prospect of fleeing for your life from a situation of domestic violence, often with children in tow, is terrifying enough.
To then face having no personal products is something that is easily fixed by the generosity of the VIEW Club ladies and wider community.
“If we can make it easier for just one woman in that situation then we have done our job,” Mrs Eccleston said.
If we can make it easier for just one woman in that situation then we have done our job.
- VIEW president Helen Eccleston
Domestic violence continues to be a concern in the Cootamundra area.
According to NSW Crime Statistics for the 2015 calendar year, there were more domestic violence related assaults that those non domestic violence related.
The figures show there were 42 domestic violence related assaults compared to 39 not against a spouse/partner/family member.
There were also 29 breaches of apprehended violence orders across the calendar year, up from 18 the previous year.
It is these at-risk women who find themselves in crisis accommodation centres with that transition made a little bit easier thanks to the thoughtfulness of the VIEW Club ladies.
