On 8 March, the world will celebrate women’s achievement, raise awareness against bias, and act for equality on International Women’s Day
The Kent Community Foundation Women’s Fund was set up to challenge inequality, abuse, exploitation and disadvantage in the home, workplace and the community and offer a programme of funding that enables women and girls to take positive steps towards empowerment and opportunity.
Josephine McCartney, Chief Executive, Kent Community Foundation, said, “The Kent Community Foundation Women’s Fund offers financial support to organisations supporting women and girls who are often disproportionately disadvantaged by multiple issues, which are often complex in nature. International Women’s Day gives us an opportunity to highlight the key issues in Kent and Medway, which this Fund is able to address, including domestic violence and abuse, modern slavery, exploitation, sexual assault and social isolation.”
Grants from the Women’s Fund have recently been awarded to SATEDA Limited and Beyond The Page Ltd, to support the important work they are doing.
SATEDA, Swale Action to End Domestic Abuse, provide specialist counselling to families who are recovering from domestic abuse. In December Kent Community Foundation awarded SATEDA £5,000, to help towards their counselling costs. The counselling they provide enables families to start to recover from the trauma and effects of domestic abuse, helps to reform the family unit, provides a positive basis for their future, improves communication and self-confidence, and empowers them with a sense of worth.
Dr Liza Thompson, CEO, SATEDA, said, “The grant from the Women’s Fund has allowed SATEDA to provide counselling to 140 women affected by domestic abuse. This amounts to over 470 counselling hours. These figures speak for themselves and we are very grateful for the continued support from Kent Community Foundation.”
Beyond The Page addresses the many disadvantages that minority ethnic women face. In December they were awarded £5,000 from the Women’s Fund to develop and extend their pilot chatrooms project. The project is designed to improve digital skills and confidence by supporting those with limited or no digital literacy, demonstrate how useful the internet can be and help women to identify scams.
Dr Sheila Macdonald, Executive Director, Beyond The Page, said, “The grant from Kent Community Foundation for our pilot chatroom project has been so important to help us stay connected. One of the Beyond The Page volunteers said to me ‘This is the only connection outside the family that I have now, because all the other groups I was part of have stopped. This is the only thing that’s carried on during the pandemic that’s helped me feel connected with other people, and knowing I could help somebody else really makes a big difference doesn’t it?’ This financial support allowed us to adapt to the constraints of the pandemic and ensure we could maintain important contact between our volunteers and the disadvantaged women that we support.”
To donate to the Women’s Fund email development@kentcf.org.uk and to find out more visit www.kentcf.org.uk/give/womens-fund
About SATEDA
SATEDA’s vision is to end domestic abuse. Their mission is to enable people to end the cycle of domestic abuse and rebuild their lives, through education, support, and advocacy. They provide a full journey of support to victims and survivors, enabling them to take back control and break free from domestic abuse. www.sateda.org
About Beyond The Page
Since 2015, Beyond The Page has offered safe, creative and fun women-only spaces for English language-learning and inter-cultural friendship for over 250 women from more than 50 countries. The women they support include those who are living in or rehoused from refuges; destitute during immigration disputes; refugees and asylum seekers; mentally frail, socially isolated, with minimal family support; illiterate or with a learning difficulty. www.beyondthepage.org.uk
About Kent Community Foundation
Grant-maker Kent Community Foundation has been finding, funding, and supporting some of the smallest voluntary organisations in the county for 20 years. In this time, it has distributed over £40 million to support thousands of small charities and deserving causes where a modest sum of money can make a significant impact.
They are part of a UK wide accredited network of forty-six Community Foundations who are committed to improving the lives of local people and communities, particularly the most vulnerable, isolated, and disadvantaged by matching those who want to help, with those who need the help.
Responsible for more than 80 philanthropic funds, Kent Community Foundation is unrivalled in its knowledge of local causes and assists individuals, families, and businesses, who want to help, to establish and administer their own charitable funds.
