Our club regularly applies for the Premier's Awards to members of the Service Clubs of South Australia. A recent succes was the Crisis Care Bags project. Our aim was to help alleviate children's trauma arising from situations of domestic violence. The recipients were children 18 months to six years of age, arriving at two women's refuges in the southern area of Adelaide.
To assist the children to cope with the experience of leaving their homes, the Crisis Care Bags contained:
• Something to read (for children and for mother to read to them)
• Something to love (cuddly blanket, soft toy)
• Something to help stay clean and fresh (toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, washcloth)
• Something to do (pencils, paper, activity books, puzzles, sock puppets)
• Something to give to mother (scarves, hand-cream or lip-gloss)
Members made the 56 carry bags, knitted toys and scarves. We were assisted by donations from our group and from commercial enterprises. Bags were tagged according to three age ranges and hand-written cards were attached.
By helping the children, we believe we alleviated at least some of their mother's stress.
October 2021 Members of SI Southern Districts chatting with SA Premier, Steven Marshall about the 100th birthday of Soroptimist International.
