A woman has raised $45,000 in the past year for family violence survivors, using little more than a laptop inside her modest Williamstown retirement village apartment to tap into funding resources.
After working at a western suburbs women’s refuge, Jenny Hickinbotham in 2010 founded the Household Relief Fund (HRF) to support women and children escaping violence.
She was moved to help after seeing women start new lives with little more than the clothes on their backs.
“They’re supposed to stay in the refuge up to six weeks,” Ms Hickinbotham said. “Some stayed longer; difficult, complex cases would stay longer.
“They always have to give up their work because the perpetrator can follow them … and find the address of the refuge and breach the security. So they have no income.”
Ms Hickinbotham last year received a $3000 grant from the Hobsons Bay Community Fund (HBCF) to help women by buying white goods and paying for other necessities.
One woman, an Iranian mother-of-two, received a washing machine partly funded by the HBCF grant and partly by a donation from a retailer. She had been sexually assaulted numerous times and believed she could never return to her family.
Ms Hickinbotham said a small amount of money could make a huge difference.
“Very few come back a second time,” she said.
Anyone experiencing family violence should call the Women’s Domestic Violence Crisis Service on 1800 015 188.
