Zahra Foundation Australia delivers grants to help women and children leaving abusive relationships
FOR women escaping violent and controlling relationships, the smallest help from a local charity is making a huge difference.
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FOR women escaping violent relationships, the smallest help can make a huge difference.
South Australia’s Zahra Foundation, established by the children of murdered mother Zahra Abrahimzadeh, has given more than $3700 in small grants to help women regain control of their futures after leaving abusive partners.
Since March, the Opportunity Knox program has helped to buy winter school uniforms for children living in shelter accommodation with their mother and a work uniform for a woman who could not return to her job because she had left her uniform at her abusive partner’s house.
Grants of up to $500 are available to women and children being supported by a domestic violence service.
Zahra Foundation general manager Kylie O’Çallaghan said the organisation wanted to boost the grants to $1000 for families in future.
Mother of one Rhiannon, 24, was given $500 towards TAFE fees to get her into the workforce after she left a drug-addicted partner who was abusive.
“He had all my passwords. I had to shut down my bank account, get a new phone and phone number, deactivate my social media accounts,” she said of the man she fled more than two years ago.
“One day, I saw this look in his eyes and I thought: ‘Today’s the day I’m going to die’ and I knew I had to leave.
“I told him I was going to do a grocery shop and took my daughter and fled straight to my mum’s house instead.”
Rhiannon is now completing a Community Services Certificate IV course and plans to study social work at university next year.
Other grants have paid for:
A UNIFORM to help a woman start work as a chef.
A TAFE SA exam fee to get a woman into the police force.
A FIRST aid certificate for a woman to re-enter the workforce at a childcare centre.
A MAKE-UP kit for a woman studying a beauty course.
Ms O’Callaghan said the grants were funded by donations.
“We are currently responding to many requests for winter school uniforms for children in shelter accommodation,” she said.
To donate, see www.zahrafoundation.org.au
