Reigate and Banstead Womens Aid: A women’s refuge for women and their children fleeing domestic control, abuse and violence

Guest blog written by Jan Cornwell, Secretary of Nutfield Gals WI

This blog is about the beginning of mine and Nutfield Gals WI’s involvement with Reigate and Banstead Women’s Aid (RBWA), the amazing women who run the Women’s Refuge and the women and children who find themselves needing this massively underfunded and at risk resource.

By pure chance in late 2017 I became involved with my local Women’s Refuge firstly by just donating mine, my sister and daughter’s unwanted clothes and kid’s clothes and then quite soon afterwards as a volunteer.

In 2018 I spoke to my fellow committee members to see if we could invite Emma who manages the refuge to come and speak about what the refuge does at one of our meetings, they liked the idea.  Thankfully she agreed to come and talk about, the challenges involved and also spoke generally about the kinds of cases they have to deal with.  She also for the very first time in public, agreed to tell her own personal story of escaping an abusive and dangerous relationship. 

To say the story she told of her own experience was powerful, shocking, heart breaking and utterly appalling is a massive understatement, the emotion and empathy in the room was tangible, we were stunned into silence by what this 29 year-old woman had endured and survived. She was and continues to be, an inspiration to me. 

The financial challenges of running the refuge are constant and unrelenting, the CEO and staff spend far too much of their precious time trying to find ways of saving money and securing funding. The Nutfield Gals decided they wanted to help, so we do!

We regularly make donations of female toiletries and baby/toddler items such as nappies and wipes. We also make donations of non-perishable foodstuffs. The refuge provide a welcome box for all new clients which contains toiletries and some starter foodstuffs - pasta, rice, tinned tomatoes, beans etc., which helps the women have a measure of independence to feed their family until such time as they have money to shop for themselves. They also have new bedding and towels in their room and if they have children, a toy and book, however, all of this has to be donated or funds raised to finance it.

All these things are desperately needed by the women and their children, as they usually arrive at the refuge with nothing, just the clothes they stand up in. Can you imagine being so afraid for your life that you have to leave your home, your friends and family, your belongings, your children’s toys and clothes and flee hundreds of miles away from everything that’s familiar in order to be safe, not a comfortable thought is it?

I’m going to be blogging regularly about mine and Nutfield Gals experiences of being involved with such an incredibly worthwhile and vital resource. I hope you find it interesting and informative and that it stirs something in you to make you and your WI want to get involved with your local women’s refuge. I really hope so, because this hideous abuse and control is going on everywhere, in your town, your village, your street, maybe in your WI or worse still, in your own family! 

Did you know your WI can support your local women's refuge under the NFWI's violence against women mandate?