On September 16th I will swim 10K down the River Dart to raise money for Womankind!! Why I hear you shout? Well, I love swimming, and thought what better way to raise money for one of my favourite organisations than test how much I love it and take on this challenge!
For two years I volunteered for Womankind and I discovered what a valuable organisation they are. A Bristol based charity founded in 1986, they are comprised of a brilliant bunch of women working hard to support women in the Bristol area to improve their mental health and well-being so they can experience a better quality of life.
Their work involves running low cost or free therapeutic services including professional counselling, group psychotherapy, befriending and a helpline service. They help hundreds of women every year to have a better life, many of whom who have faced or are facing the injustices of abuse. The key to this is helping women help themselves, starting from a belief that women best know how to define their own needs and lives, a truly empowering approach.
Womankind are currently developing a new aspect of their helpline service, an instant messaging service. This service would be for women who find it difficult to use the telephone helpline e.g. D/deaf or hard of hearing woman, young women etc. Some funds have been raised, but in this increasingly difficult funding climate, more is needed. And that is why I am aiming to raise £1000 to contribute to getting this service off the ground.
Your donation would go into the pot for the planning, recruitment of a volunteer coordinator and development of the service.
It's a bloody long way to swim (I may turn into a fish) and a summer of training means I have to be sensible (which is possibly more of a challenge than the swim itself) so your donation would be a massive encouragement!!
Please help me swim the Dart 10K for £1k for Womankind and contribute to improving the quality of many women's lives in the South West!
