List of all winners and nominees | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998
Winners 2006
Individual Award: Comfort Momoh
Comfort is a public health specialist who campaigns against Female Genital Mutilation. She is the only FGM specialist midwife in the UK, and she established and runs the African Well Woman’s Clinic since 1997. This clinic provides advice, information, counselling and remedial surgical procedures for women who have undergone FGM. She has written and spoken widely on this subject in order to raise awareness of violence against women, and she has been a valuable resource and source of information to health and social care professionals within the community. She always goes the extra mile on behalf of women and children, and is admired and trusted by all those she works with.
Group Award: The Refugee Women's Resource Project
The Refugee Women's Resource Project (RWRP) was established in 2000 by Asylum Aid - a registered charity providing free legal advice and representation to people seeking asylum - with the aim of addressing the ingrained gender discrimination experienced by women seeking protection in the UK from persecution and human rights abuses abroad. The RWRP is unique, both in the way it integrates dedicated legal advice provision, asylum support casework, original research and country information expertise, and in its use of the information it generates through this work as the evidence base for its policy development, lobbying and campaigning. For more information about the work of the RWRP, including their research (Lip Service or Implementation?, Asylum Aid, March 2006) please go to their website.
Other Nominees 2006
Individuals
Sue George - Sue is a volunteer working for Barnardo’s Southampton Young Women’s Project. She has been nominated for her personal courage, her ability to make her own survival story a positive force for change, and in particular her commitment and dedication to young women abused through prostitution.
Davina James-Hanman - Davina has worked for two decades in the field of domestic violence, in a variety of capacities: advocate, campaigner, refuge worker, researcher, policy officer, project manager. She has been nominated for her renewed vision for domestic violence service provision for London, and for her enthusiasm and tenacity at the Greater London Domestic Violence Project in improving advocacy support services for survivors of sexual violence and abuse.
Laurie Anne Matthew - Laurie is currently coordinator of 18 and Under, a charity for children who have been abused. This has evolved from a charity she set up in 1994 to support younger women survivors of domestic and sexual abuse. Laurie has developed a safety and awareness programme for children: Violence is Preventable (VIP). She is now piloting a VIP programme for elderly women. She has also created a service for survivors of organised abuse. She is an inspiring survivor and life long campaigner, encouraging other women to break the silence around abuse and seek justice.
Nadia Siddiqui - Nadia is a founder member of Refuge Space for Asian Women. She has worked in the community for 30 years, supporting and working with Asian women experiencing domestic violence. She has done pioneering work around the abduction of children to Islamic states, and has managed to develop networks, both informal and formal, to try and secure the return of such children. Nadia also has an unswerving commitment to tackling issues of domestic violence: she was involved in the establishment of an Asian Women’s Refuge in Manchester, the setting up of a Young Asian Women’s Refuge in Manchester, and in organising and leading campaigns around Immigration and Domestic Violence. She has also mobilised women in the community to campaign against a specialised single sex school for young Asian women. Finally she has secured funding to work on a project that looks at the experience of Pakistani women asylum seekers and domestic violence.
Claudia Ferreira da Silva - In 1981 Claudia founded the London Centre for Personal Safety, a charity providing advice and training in personal safety and self-defence. She is a pioneer in this field, and has fundraised tirelessly to make the training free and available to those most in need. She campaigns with like minded organisations to raise the issue of male violence and put it to the forefront of the debate. She has fought to dispel the prejudice which blames women for the violence they suffer, and to counter the personal safety advice which seeks to curtail their freedom. In recent years, Claudia has been working with Casa Amiga to raise international awareness of the extreme violence - torture, abduction and murder of women in Juarez, Mexico.
Pippa Simpson - Pippa is a valued member of the Southend Women’s Aid team. She started working there as a volunteer in 1993, having herself escaped from years of extreme violence. Since that time, she has undertaken a social work course and has been able to offer training to various women’s aid organisations in Essex. For some years she has worked at DOVE, a specialist advice and drop-in centre, and she continues to do far more in a voluntary capacity, including continuing to volunteer on the out-of –hours emergency helpline at least four nights a week. Her personal commitment to the cause of fighting domestic violence is tireless.
Groups
Ashiana Network - Ashiana Network's purpose is to empower South Asian, Turkish and Iranian women aged between 16-30, who are experiencing domestic violence, by providing them with culturally sensitive advice, support and safe housing - enabling them to make positive and appropriate choices for themselves – and to raise awareness of domestic violence and carry out preventative work with the community as a whole. In addition to Ashiana’s main refuge there is a safe house specifically for women aged 16-25 fleeing forced marriage. Ashiana also deliver an education programme for young people in secondary schools in East London aimed at preventing domestic violence and enabling young people experiencing domestic violence to access appropriate services. We deliver a range of awareness raising workshops for young people in the community and training on domestic violence for professionals in the voluntary and statutory sector. We run a youth project to engage young people between the ages of 13-19 who are disadvantaged or at risk of social exclusion in some form of extracurricular activities. In addition we have in-house short-term counselling service for our residents and outreach clients who require specialist counselling. Ashiana currently runs a domestic violence support group for women in the wider community.
Break the Silence: Stop the Violence (Leeds InterAgency Project, Education Leeds, Leeds Community Safety, Leeds City Council) - “Break The Silence” is a multi-agency project that aims to raise awareness of domestic abuse in schools. The agencies involved produced innovative curriculum resources for schools to use as part of the PHSCE syllabus. There are separate packs for high schools and primary schools. Both packs take a wide-ranging approach to violence and personal safety. The primary pack helps younger children to learn about relationships, their bodies and personal safety through a range of engaging activities. The pack for High Schools looks at rights and responsibilities in relationships and raises awareness of what makes for healthy and unhealthy relationships. Both packs were launched in 2004 and have now been distributed to every school in Leeds. Feedback from teachers has been very positive. The purpose of the packs is to focus on, and the implications for teachers and schools. The resource is a practical introduction to tackling domestic violence and child protection, and will help: raise awareness, provide information, offer guidance for writing policies and procedures, and help schools begin to address concerns, across both the hidden and mainstream curricula. Whilst the materials are aimed at schools they can also be adapted to be used in other children and young people’s settings.
Corby Women’s Theatre Group - Corby women’s refuge was closed in 2000. Since then, Corby Women’s Theatre Group, directed by Paula Boulton, has been active locally, raising the profile of the lack of facilities in the borough for victims and survivors of domestic violence. The theatre group has also raised funds towards the setting up costs of the planned new refuge. This year the group is working towards staging a new play by Paula: Women of Steel, illustrating the lives of women at a time when steel manufacturing was a major industry and employer in the town. As in their previous productions, domestic violence, an ever-present factor in women’s lives, is a theme of the play. Women’s enduring strength in the fact of adversity is another major theme. The theatre group is a community group which works hard to raise funds to finance productions which in turn help to raise the profile of domestic violence in a town where change is hard to bring about. In this context, the group provide thought-provoking and enlightening entertainment.
Deaf Women Against Violence, & WISE Women - The ‘Deaf Women Against Violence’ Group has worked with WISE Women to raise awareness of violence against women within the Deaf community and to improve access to services for Deaf women. The group has produced a brilliant and unique information pack for Deaf women, which was launched in May 2006. The pack contains six leaflets: Bullying and Harassment; Child Sexual Abuse; Domestic Abuse; Personal Safety; Prostitution; Rape and Sexual Violence. Some of these issues, most notably prostitution, have not been discussed extensively within the Deaf community, and so this has been a critical development in the debate about violence against women in this context. BSL is a language in itself, and it was therefore very challenging to provide literature which was accessible to the majority of Deaf women. All the leaflets give visual information in sign language and in accessible English, and are colour coded to assist women with little written English. This was pioneering work, and the result is a major achievement. It is planned to distribute the pack throughout Scotland.
Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights (IKWRO) - Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation is a non-profit charity organisation that works to help and support women who are in danger of “honour killings”, forced marriage and domestic violence. IKWRO aims to influence mainstream society, raising awareness both within communities and with policy makers. The International Campaign against Honour Killings” is an independent and non-government network that aims to raise an international awareness about the violence against women particularly “honour killings”. Their slogan is “save lives”. IKWRO also helps individual clients on a one-toone basis. Diana Nami and the volunteers at IKWRO face constant challenges in their daily work, risking their own safety by publicly carrying out this kind of campaign work and one-to-one support. They persevere, using volunteer power, in the face of difficulties gaining funding to resource these kinds of campaigns, and are succeeding in making these important campaign messages heard by communities in London and, with support form volunteers living overseas, internationally as well.
The Knowle West Domestic Abuse Project (nominated jointly with the WISH project) - The Knowle West Domestic Abuse Project (KWDAP) is based in Bristol and was established in May 2004 as a recommendation of a local multi-agency group set up to tackle domestic abuse in the area: Knowle West at the time had the highest recorded incidents of domestic abuse in the South West, and is one of the countries top ten most deprived areas. The multi–agency group consists of Survivors, Local residents, Police, Social Services, Housing, Health, Education, and Voluntary Sector Agencies and continues to guide the work of the project. KWDAP is a community based outreach service offering practical & emotional support to women and children experiencing domestic abuse. This support takes many forms including: providing information about options, accompanying people to housing, social services, police, solicitors, courts and other agencies. Providing security for women to stay in their own homes or helping them to access safe alternative accommodation. The project offers one to one support, safety planning, weekly support groups, drop-ins (one of which is out of hours), the Freedom Programme - a structured programme that helps women to understand the effects of men’s abusive behaviour on themselves and their children, an out of hours telephone service, and a comprehensive and well maintained website. The project is also involved in delivering a pilot education pack (Spiralling) into Bristol Secondary Schools, offering training on domestic abuse awareness to local agencies, providing awareness, raising campaigns on the estate, and training local women to help deliver the service as volunteers.
Low Newton Women’s Support Group - The Low Newton Women’s Support Group came together to participate in a pilot programme – Partners for Protection - which was offered to women currently residing in Low Newton Prison who had suffered violence and abuse. The aim was to help women protect themselves and their children on their release from prison. All of these women, as children, lived with domestic violence; 90% of the women had been sexually abused as children. They had all suffered violence and abuse as adults and were trying to cope with the effects of this ongoing trauma. The women found the programme helpful and wanted to carry on meeting so that they could support each other; they also want to raise awareness and help other women who have suffered violence and abuse. They are currently trying to produce a book that would be available to other women to help combat isolation and feelings of guilt, self-blame and shame; something they all felt until they came together in a group. The group, which is unfunded, is facilitated by two workers from Barnado’s.
UNIFEM in London - Unifem in London is the local branch of the UK Association for the United Nations Development Fund for Women. In 2005 the group initiated the Voices project, which extends awareness of violence against women. Realising the power of stories, the group took first hand accounts from women in developing countries to highlight different forms of violence against women. The Voices project emphasises the damaging consequences of discrimination in society, and the connection with horrific crimes of violence against women. The project forms part of an annual programme of events, seminars and conferences to achieve wider education of public attitudes towards gender-based violence and human rights issues and consequent support for social change for women internationally. UNIFEM UK is a member based organisation with limited resources, and the London branch are seeking to continue the Voices campaign, having successfully produced a CD and inspired performances in various venues, including HE colleges and arts festivals.
UNISON (Northern Ireland) Women’s Committee - The Unison (NI) women’s committee has worked energetically to raise awareness across the public sector employers in Northern Ireland of violence against women and children. They have sought to bring change about by ensuring the employer accepts that it is good practice for their organisation to have policies and partnerships in place to ensure support is available to all employees finding themselves in this situation. To enable them to carry out this work the women’s committee made a decision in 2003 that as part of their work programme they would actively campaign to ensure all public sectors employers where UNISON have a membership that they put in place a work-place policy to address the issue of domestic violence. When this work started there were no workplace polices in place in Health Trusts or Education Boards in N Ireland. The committee agreed to take this work forward by holding seminars to raise awareness of domestic violence geographically.
Walsall Domestic Forum - The forum was established approximately 8 years ago. Individuals and professional bodies worked together to develop a service for women in Walsall. In 2001, a lottery grant enabled the forum to employ a team of workers and get the service onto a firm footing, and with the help of volunteers and some further grants, they have now achieved an effective and impressive service. In addition to a 24 hour helpline and crisis intervention service for women experiencing domestic violence there is a full school programme for 5-11 year olds and a training programme for police, community workers and health care professionals. The Forum has also produced posters, survival cards, information and campaigning materials, and stickers for women’s toilet doors all over Walsall. It is a remarkable achievement to have established such a comprehensive service for women in the Walsall area at this period of time.
Women & Girls Network - WAGN is a pan-London organization that has an 18-year history of providing high quality, women only services to survivors of violence and/or abuse. WAGN has developed one of the most pioneering clinical approaches to understanding the impact of violence and abuse on survivors from a holistic perspective. WAGN’s expertise is often consulted through its representation on policy forums and by its presentations at conferences, seminars and workshops. A most recent and exciting development that WAGN has initiated is a specialist pan-London counselling service for young women and girls overcoming the experiences of violence and abuse. The first phase will see the development of a London-wide Young Women’s Consultation Project on Violence and abuse. The key aims of the project is to establish a forum of young women who will be up-skilled to facilitate and organise a London-wide conference for their young female peers, so as to consult on the key areas of concern to them around violence and abuse and the support initiatives that they would like to see developed in the future. The forum members will be responsible to lead on post-conference summits with funders, commissioner, policy makers and planners to provide feedback on the young women’s experiences of violence and abuse in London. The organisation has made a commitment to working to develop the awareness-raising activists of tomorrow to bring about change and combat violence against women.