11 children taken in to care of Derry group on one day alone as their mums flee from domestic violence

On one day alone last week, eleven children were taken in to the care of a Derry group who help domestic violence victims.

The children accompanied their mothers who reached out to Foyle Women’s Aid after fleeing from their homes and their abusive husbands or partners.

Foyle Women’s Aid provides a range of accommodation locally to support victims of domestic violence and their children.

Details of the latest group of children to seek refuge in the charity’s accommodation emerged at the weekend during a vigil in Derry for those affected by domestic violence.

The vigil at St Columb’s Cathedral on Saturday afternoon was organised by the local branch of the Mothers Union.

It was one of fifteen vigils held simultaneously in the twelve dioceses of the Church of Ireland as part of the‘16 Days of Activism’ campaign to highlight the issue of gender violence locally, nationally and internationally.

Among those who spoke at the vigil was Marie Brown, the director of Foyle Women’s Aid.

Mrs Brown (pictured) said that someone was attacked in a domestic violence incident every 19 minutes in Northern Ireland.

She highlighted that her organisation did want they could to help the victims.

“We had 11 children admitted in to our services last week on just one day alone,” she said.

“So our problems are here; our laws are here to be challenged and as we and as we sit here in the purple Suffragette colours there is a lot to be done here locally.”

Mrs Brown said that she had decided to tell a victim’s story as part of her contribution to the vigil.

“One of the women has kindly given me her story so I am going to tell her story so that we can increase our understanding of how difficult it is for these women.

“The question that we always get asked is ‘why don’t they just leave?’

“I hope by the end of this you will understand it is just not that simple.”