Women's Aid Dundalk annual '16 Days of Action' begins this week

It’s that time of year when Women’s Aid Dundalk partakes in the global campaign “16 Days of Action”, running from the 25th of November (International Day for elimination of violence against women) to December 10th (Human Rights Day).

The16 days happens once a year to raise awareness of Domestic Abuse. The theme for this year's campaign is “UNITE”
Women’s Aid Dundalk have been part of this global campaign for many years and this year they say they hope to “UNITE” the local community in responding to Domestic violence.

The local organisation say they have several awareness raising events happening during the 16 days. To begin, they say they are delighted to have the opportunity to partner with Dundalk FM and its morning show Town Talk. Each day before the show gets underway, Town Talk have generously agreed to give Women's Aid a brief moment of airtime for sixteen days to broadcast a fact, myth or statistic about Domestic Violence.

Women’s Aid Dundalk also have three awareness raising days in DKIT at the end of November, a chance to meet with our support service staff and get information.

Local TD’s, Councillors and well-known local people from Dundalk, were keen to help in any way they could, so during the 16 days they will be joining in the social media campaign across all the socials to voice their support and show how people can help and get involved.

Women’s Aid Dundalk manager Ann Larkin, will be giving a talk about the work the organisation does on Monday morning December 5th at the Oriel Centre for members of the recently established Women’s Shed.

There will also be a gathering at An Tain on December 7th, with members of the community in a view to establishing a robust community forum, aiming to explore and promote the community response to Domestic violence in Dundalk.

Women's Aid Dundalk say they wish to give a huge thank you for the very generous support of Digital Screen Displays who have been and will continue throughout the 16 days, to advertising their services, at no charge, on their three prominent screens, situated at the Square, the Lisdoo and North Link Road.

They say it helps them get their message out to the community to enable women to reach out and link into support. “We are here to listen”, says Women's Aid.

Domestic Violence doesn’t exist in isolation, it affects many facets of a woman and her children’s lives. It is an extremely complex issue and has huge impact on both women and children.

Women’s Aid Dundalk provides several services to support women and children, including crisis accommodation, 24 hour helpline (042 9333244), court clinic, children’s supportive therapies, supervised access, 1-2-1 work, Advocacy, accompaniment, outreach, supported housing and a community crèche.