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ByNaomi Dickson, Naomi Dickson
The chief executive of Jewish Women’s Aid, Naomi Dickson, says demand for their services has never been higher
July 27, 2017 13:51I am always amazed that a mere seven per cent of our funding comes from the government. This means we need to raise the remaining 93 per cent ourselves.
At a time when demand for our services has never been higher, we find ourselves leaning on the community to help Jewish Women’s Aid more than ever before.
Fundraising is always hard, and asking people for money is inevitably difficult. But asking the Jewish community to support their own mothers, daughters, sisters, and friends who’ve been abused by partners seems harder. Why?
After 25 years of hard campaigning, Jewish Women’s Aid has achieved levels of understanding and recognition in the community which our founders could only dream of. The taboo around domestic and sexual violence is lifting and people are starting to understand and discuss the issue.
But we are not there yet. In every section of the community, there are those who still struggle to understand that domestic violence affects people like them — they think it happens to “someone else”.
The sad reality is that there are women from every segment of the community who need JWA’s support — and correspondingly men across the breadth of the community who are perpetrators.
JWA is still largely seen as a women’s charity, and domestic abuse as a women’s issue.
But yes, of course, we acknowledge domestic violence happens to men as well and we would always refer abused men to an appropriate support service.
Surely everyone in the community wants a culture of healthy relationships and marriages. No one wants their daughter, sister or friend to be abused — and then not having access to support. This isn’t “just a women’s issue”. It’s something everyone should support JWA in tackling.
Naomi Dickson is chief executive of Jewish Women’s Aid