the nia project: working for the safety of women and children

Women 2 Women

We are a group of women who have been living in the nia project refuges after having had to leave our homes because of domestic violence. We have set up a volunteering project to offer support to new residents in the refuge so that we can use our experiences to help other women who have been through domestic violence. Coming into a refuge is very scary because you have to leave your normal life behind and live in an area you don’t know to live with people you don’t know. When you come into a refuge you are often lonely. You are worried about how living in a refuge will affect your kids and you have to deal with the fact that you have lost everything.
Women 2 Women aim to help women feel more confident and let them know they are not on their own. We aim to help women deal with the guilt that they might be feeling and let them know that they have not done anything wrong. We will encourage women to carry on living in the refuge and help them to recover their self-esteem and rebuild their lives. We will support women and use our experiences to give them hope for their future.
Women2Women volunteers are trained to offer support to other women. We aim to help women deal with all the things that happen at once when you come into a refuge. To help women get what they need when they go to places like the DSS or Housing Benefit and make sure that the workers there listen to them. The project will also help ex-residents to gain new skills and training and help us all to find work in the future. We are offering a one to one service to support women, to listen to them and let them know that they are not alone. We will offer understanding from women who have been through domestic violence and refuge life.
Women 2 Women is about helping women to get their life back to normal and deal with things one day at a time.