Through contact with The Buddy Bag Foundation, Club was very aware of the importance of Buddy Bags in helping empower children entering refuges with a sense of safety and security into their lives during a traumatic time. We decided to make similar bags for the mothers. The bags provide them with the essentials which they may not have with them and provide some comfort when all else has been suddenly taken away.
We wanted to emulate this idea but for the children’s mothers, the victims of domestic abuse who have to leave their homes suddenly. Working with one of our Partnership organisations Pathway Project – our local refuge, we decided to create “Mums’ Bags” for distribution to the ladies at the refuge. The bags would contain essential items and a little “luxury”.
Club applied for and received a grant from our Co-op Local Community Fund using funds generated from their plastic bag levy. We used this money to purchase toiletries, and other items for the bags along with 25 sets of pyjamas as stock for the refuge. We also collected toiletries etc from Club members in Lichfield and locally.
Our Sewing Bee made 75 bags, our German friendship club SI Kaarst provided 25 and we recycled a further 15.
Each bag contains a range of toiletries such as shampoo, toothpaste/brush, and shower gel, plus a notebook and pen, a novel, tissues and one or two luxuries such as lipstick, face cream, hand cream etc.
Needless to say we ended up with a garage-full of items for the bags, which were packed as a fun, team-activity at the end of our first full day Domestic Abuse Workshop.
The 115 bags were donated to Pathway along with 25 sets of pyjamas. Both the bags and the pyjamas will be given to the ladies in the refuge over the coming months.
As a mark of solidarity, we attached a hand written label to each bag which had the Soroptimist logo on one side and a personal message of encouragement on the other.
One of our contacts at Pathway commented: “These items are vital when someone arrives here with nothing and so will help enormously as they are so expensive. The pyjamas will be wonderful too as so many of our residents don’t have them or are in desperate need of new ones! Thank you so much for this!”
