Group Raises Money To Help Victims Of Domestic Abuse.
A NOBLE trend for a change has been growing steadily in popularity in Saint Lucia and has for the fourth time, left one local charity feeling hopeful and grateful following a sizable donation.
The women of the organisation, 100 Women Who Care recently presented a cheque for $10, 400 to Raise Your Voice St. Lucia Inc. which is an organisation that helps victims of rape, domestic violence, child abuse and speaks out against the lack of swift justice for women and children.
100 Women Who Care was introduced to Saint Lucia by Valerie Jenkinson who is the local group’s Chairperson.
The initiative began in Canada and is designed for busy women who want to do something to help the community in Saint Lucia but don’t have enough time to bake cookies, host fundraisers and go to numerous meetings.
Jenkinson said the idea and method is simple as all that members are required to do is to meet once a quarter for one hour with $100 in hand which is placed in a jar and signed for upon entry. At that meeting, any woman can nominate a local charity. Following the nominations, all the names of the nominated charities go into a hat and three names are picked out randomly. Once this is done, the three people who nominated those charities get to speak for five minutes about the charity and what they would use the money for. After the presentations, the membership votes and whoever gets the most votes, takes home the money.
Hotelier BerthiaParle is the organisation’s Patroness.
Jenkinson said: “I thought, what a simple idea and how much it is needed in Saint Lucia so I approached Senator Parle and asked if she would be our patroness and she graciously conceded she also offered the use of the Bay Gardens Facilities to hold our meetings at no charge.”
A grateful Catherine Sealys who is the secretary of the organisation chosen to receive the cheque said; “We’re extremely excited about receiving this cheque because it will definitely assist us with our advocacy work. We’re getting Technical assistance from ITCA University out of New York to produce the public service announcements and this money is going to go towards paying for these announcements because we can only get our messages aired for free on GIS, we have to pay for the other stations.”
Raise Your Voice St. Lucia Inc. was formed in 2014 by a group of women who were concerned about the state of social services and the status of crimes against women and children in Saint Lucia.
Patroness BerthiaParle said of the group: “I think that it’s something that a lot of women in Saint Lucia want to get involved with because a lot of them have time constraints. They have families, they leave work and they rush home to cook for them and so people don’t want something that takes a lot of time. They come in, they sign, they give their hundred dollars and we choose the charities. For me it’s a pleasure being a patron of the event and we’ve done really well so far. I hope that we continue to grow and we want to thank all of the women who joined.”
Parle urged more women who wish to contribute more to charity to join the movement.
In the organisation’s first meeting, $5200 from 52 members was raised. With membership now passing 100, this was the first time they hit their target and even had some extra.
The next meeting is on April 5 and will be held at Bay Gardens Resort. Interested persons can log onto www.100womenwhocarestlucia.com or visit the Facebook page 100 Women Who Care St. Lucia
Congratulations. Not only did you ladies observed some of the ills in society that needs to be is not taking center stage. You became concerned to where you wanted to make a positive difference. You met, shared ideas and made those ideas a reality. That is excellence at its best.