Christian Malford and Foxham WI members were very keen to show their support for the No More Violence campaign. They took on board some of the suggestions put forward by NFWI on how they could do this.
On the 19th of March 2021 some of their members took part in the ‘WI Walk with Women’, and between 6pm-7pm they walked around the village. Those that could not do this followed the second option of placing a sign in their windows and holding a candlelight vigil to show their support.
Another suggestion was to sign the Women’s Aid’s online petition, requiring local authorities to fund specific domestic abuse services for women which some of them did and it is not too late for other WI’s to take this action: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/577718
The members also agreed that their WI president should send a copy of the template letter provide by NFWI to their local MP James Gray. They also agreed that she could attach a list of their names and address. President Shirley Palmer received a quick response from James Gray thanking them for the letter in support of the Istanbul Convention and for raising “some very important points” and that he had made the Government Equality Office aware of them.
He then forwarded on a copy of a letter that he received from Rachel Maclean, Minister for Safeguarding at the Home Office, dated 28th September 2021. This was a very detailed explanation about the issues that have been faced in ratifying the Istanbul Convention together with information about the next steps that were being taken and a statement that the “government remains committed to ratifying the Istanbul Convention as soon as possible.”
All of the information that they received was passed onto both WFWI and NFWI. Emma Holland- Lindsay from NFWI sent the following email:
“Dear Shirley, Thank you so much for passing this on, and for sharing the response that you have received from the government. This is a very useful insight into the remaining obstacles to ratification for us here at the NFWI as we are planning further work on the Istanbul Convention next year. Thank you again and the members of your WI for taking action on the campaign, we greatly appreciate your support. Best wishes, Emma"
Christian Malford and Foxham WI members are pleased to have played a small part in this important campaign and they will continue to follow its progress with interest.
- Submitted by Shirley Palmer, President Christian Malford and Foxham WI
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