Thousands of people take part in a cold swim for Women’s Aid on Nollaig na mBan.
- 2,400 people will take the plunge with events across the country from Dublin to Kerry to Donegal and hundreds of locations in between.
- The organisation, which supports victims of domestic violence expects to raise over €100,000 from the challenge.
Thursday 6th January 2024: Women’s Aid, a leading national frontline domestic violence organisation, organised its Cold Swim for Women fundraiser on Nollaig na mBan (Saturday 6th January 2024) which sees over 2,400 people sign up in support. Events and gatherings will take place in multiple locations from North to South, East to West. All with one motivation in mind – to raise much needed funds for the domestic violence charity.
Sarah Benson, CEO of Women’s Aid said:
“We are blown away by the thousands of people who have signed up to take the cold plunge in support of Women’s Aid to mark Nollaig na mBan. Individuals and groups have gone to extraordinary lengths to get involved and get in the sea to help raise funds for our work supporting women subjected to domestic abuse.”
Ms Benson added:
“The harm of domestic violence is very real and wide-ranging. One in four women in Ireland experiences abuse by a current or former partner. This is unacceptable and must change. Every woman has the right to be safe, both in their own homes and in their communities. This is not often the case. Every day our support workers on the 24hr National Freephone Helpline and our face-to-face services hear from women reporting assaults with weapons; constant surveillance and monitoring; relentless put downs and humiliations; the taking and sharing of intimate images online, complete control over all family finances; sexual assault, rape, and being threatened with theirs or their children’s lives. The impacts on these women were chilling and ranged from exhaustion, isolation, and hopelessness; to being brutalised and wounded, suffering miscarriages, poverty, feeling a loss of identity and suicide ideation, hypervigilance; and homelessness.”
Ms Benson concluded:
“Every 5 minutes a woman reaches out to Women’s Aid for support. Everyone supporting our fundraising campaign means that we can be there for victims of domestic abuse, when they need us.”
Anyone who wishes to support the brave swimmers taking the plunge this Nollaig na mBan can donate at www.womensaid.ie/donate
Ends.
24hr National Freephone Helpline 1800 341 900 www.womensaid.ie
For more information contact Christina Sherlock at christina.sherlock@womensaid.ie and on 087 9192457.
Further Information:
- Women’s Aid is a national organisation working to prevent and address the impact of domestic violence and abuse since 1974.
- We do this by advocating, influencing, training, and campaigning for effective responses to reduce the scale and impacts of domestic abuse on women and children and providing high quality, specialised, integrated, support services.
- We operate the 24hr National Freephone Helpline 1800 341 900 and National Instant Message Support Service on www.womensaid.ie, mornings and evenings, 7 days a week.
- The Women’s Aid 24-hour National Freephone Helpline is a free, non-judgmental, and confidential service that offers support to women subjected to domestic abuse including coercive control. This includes emotional, physical, sexual, or economic abuse by a current or former partner. It offers support in over 200 languages and is a gateway to local independent domestic violence refuges and support services.
- There were 31,229 contacts with Women’s Aid in 2022 during which 33,990 disclosures of abuse against women and children were made.