Our achievements eight months into 2023…

We delivered:

• • We cooked and delivered hot meals to housebound elders between Nov 2022 to April 2023
• • International Woman’s Day 2023 – was a massive success, with Dr Dina Mekded as our guest speaker and MangoTree LTD entertaining with their drumming experience.
• • We celebrated Ramadan with an Iftar event on 6th April 2023 with 50 people, including families we work with, Girls Squad and local community members.
• • The Big Move in May 2023 – We became homeless after nine years of being in our building we called home. Several of the service users called the centre home from home because it was home to many of the women fleeing violence or seeking therapeutic support. The sudden up evil didn’t not stop us! “Sometimes we must let go to let new things come in.”
• • We have acquired a transit van, more outings, more trips! When it is insured
• • We started a Caring Dads Group to have better and healthier relationships with their children. This is a 17-week course.
• • We jointly fundraised with knitting Norbury together and raised £501 for Marie Curie; thanks to Joyce Jones for the donation of healthy plants that went towards the plant sale.
• • The Girls Squad continued growing; we had 15 girls we supported for over 12 months. They tackled some very difficult issues and were rewarded with a fun time at the O2, rides the cable cars, cinema, and theme parks.
• • We shared 25 crates of women’s clothing; the donation came from a clothing manufacturer.
• • We relocated our counselling out of the borough. But we are still local, and much of our delivery is online.
• • Intergenerational trip to Southend at the end of August with members of the lunch club, girls’ squad, and our clients.
• • We supported 5 DV families with moving into their accommodation. We worked across London boroughs, and families were rehoused in Wandsworth, Lambeth, and Croydon. We sourced furnishing, flooring, bedding, kitchen stuff, food parcels, you name it; we got it so the women could begin rebuilding their homes.
• • We held several workshops with the lunch club, including Talking Therapy, Arthritis, Croydon Vision, Croydon Hearing, and a Nutritionist. We have also had trips out, including beauty treatments at Nescot College and Oval Cricket Ground.
• • Thank you to Coughlan’s Bakers for donating weekly bread and sweet treats for our Lunch Club members.
• • And we continue our telephone support with all our service users.
• • Four workshops August-Oct at NatWest Bank Norbury addressing Scams and Fraud

Thanks to our committed yet small team, we are a few in numbers but have achieved great things; we could not have moved “mountains” without you. We moved from the centre after nine years, we had 16 rooms to clear out. Given the short notice, it was undoubtedly a nightmare, but we achieved it and moved out on time. A big thank you to Ricky and Rhys, who worked night after night to take our stuff to storage; I recommend these guys anytime. They also collected and delivered furniture to the families we helped help.

Everyone knows how you have supported us, so I will not name anyone. All we will say is that you stood by us in our time of need.

Women of the world

Sometimes, asking for help is the bravest move you can make. You don’t have to do it alone – Because success doesn’t just come and find you – you must go out and find it.