How you can help WAO

Last year the WAO refuge provided shelter, counselling, and assistance to 120 battered women. The Childcare Centre helped care for over 30 of their children. Our social workers provided face-to-face and telephone counseling to a further 1500 needy women. Through the Anak Angkat (Child Sponsorship) Programme, 40 children were given the opportunity of a better future.

We need your help so that we can continue to provide these services to battered women and their children, to empower them and enable them to determine their own future, free from violence. We need support so we can continue our research, public education and advocacy work, to work towards a society which is free from violence against women.

WAO receives operations grants from the Malaysian Government's Welfare Department. We receive donations of money and donations in kind from companies and the general public. A project grant from UNIFEM funded the Monitoring of the Domestic Violence Act Project. The British, Canadian and Australian High Commissions and the Japanese Embassy also support WAO's work.

Since WAO was established, we have had support from the corporate community in terms of monetary donations as well as donations in kind. Lately, however, the involvement of the corporate sector has moved one step ahead as they realize that they can play a vital role in terms of contributing back to the community and that is through public education. WAO would like to acknowledge some of the support that we have received throughout these years and we hope that through these exemplary companies, others will realize that there are many ways in which they can contribute and will not hesitate to follow suit.

By making a monetary donation to WAO you can help us meet the operational costs of the Refuge and the Childcare Centre. Your money will go towards the daily living costs, such as food, medical expenses and transportation. You will also be supporting the counseling services provided by the social workers to the women and children.

Your contribution will also support WAO's research, advocacy and public education helping us work towards the eradication Violence Against Women and the inequality and subordination of women.

WAO needs grants to fund specific projects such as our CEDAW, Migrant Domestic Worker Abuse, and Monitoring of the Domestic Violence Act projects. We also need grants for capacity-building, and to fund WAO's on-going research, advocacy and public education work.

By making a monthly donation RM60 or yearly donation of RM740, you can help pay for the school fees for a needy child. Last year, fifty children of ex-residents of the refuge were sponsored. We keep you in touch throughout the year on how the child is doing at school. At Christmas, we hold a party where children and sponsors can meet.

More about the Anak Angkat Appeal.

Many of the women and children who come to WAO have had to leave their family homes, often in secrecy, quickly, and in a state of distress. We are always looking for donations of groceries and toiletries for the women and children.

Donations of toys, books and stationery would brighten up a day for a child who has had to leave everything he/she has behind. Donations of groceries (for example oil, rice, sardines, tea) and household goods (such as electrical goods like table fans, a television or video, kitchenware, iron, etc) are always welcome.

WAO currently has more than hundred and fifty members. You can join WAO for RM20 per year with a once-off registration fee of RM30. As a member you receive our Newsletter, keeping you in touch with WAO's activities and news.

Last year WAO was helped by many volunteers. This help is invaluable. We are always looking for volunteers, but we do need people who are able to make a regular commitment. Please contact us if you are able to make that commitment and help in any of the following areas:

Organise activities for the children.
Organise activities for the women, for example, craft sessions, language classes, cookery lessons, computer skills, or another idea you have which you would like to share.
Spending time and listening to the women and children.
Provide transport and accompany women who need to make police reports, go the hospital or run errands.
Help out with administrative work at WAO.

Please contact us if you have any queries about the ways in which you can support WAO. You can email, call, or get in touch with us at the address below. Forms can be sent via email or by normal post to the address below.

You can make a donation by sending a bankers draft or cheque, made payable to 'Women's Aid Organisation'.