MU Prayer Breakfast highlights gender–based violence
On Saturday 24 November over 100 Mothers’ Union members from Down and Dromore met for a Prayer Breakfast to highlight the campaign ‘16 days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence’, which MU has championed worldwide in recent years.
Keynote speaker Louise Kennedy, the Regional Policy and Information Coordinator of the Women’s Aid Federation, gave a presentation about the work of Women’s Aid in Northern Ireland. It made for inspiring yet sobering listening.
Members were shocked to learn that, in 2017, the Federation reached out through specialist services and training/awareness programmes to 6385 women and 6784 children in Northern Ireland; across the 13 WA refuges, 717 women and 485 children were accommodated. Its Helpline received 26,457 calls last year.
Louise spoke at length about some of the Federation’s programmes, such as those which aim to empower women and help them take their “Journey to Freedom”; and their work with children to ensure they did not feel they were to blame. She also spoke about the urgent need for welfare reform and for improved government funding for children’s services.
The Diocesan Trustees had prepared a display of shoes to reflect evocative quotations from women who had been subjected to domestic violence. These were taken from the “Souls of our Shoes” movement which Mothers’ Union members in Scotland initiated in 2017 and also was the subject of a display in Christchurch Cathedral in Dublin during The World Meeting of Families in August 2018.
With thanks to June Butler, MU Diocesan President, pictured above with Louise Kennedy.