The Land Cookery officer Roz Vest and CWA branch treasurer Maxine Hayes take a look at the contents of Escabags. Photo: Supplied.
The Gundagai Branch of the CWA is stepping up to ensure people escaping domestic and family violence have the emergency support they need.
In response to an urgency motion passed at the CWA NSW State Conference in May, the Gundagai branch agreed that ensuring a local supply of ‘Escabags’ would be a positive step they could take.
The Escabag charity provides free tote bags packed with the necessities a victim of abuse may need when forced to quickly escape a dangerous or abusive situation.
Gundagai branch president Kim Powell said the CWA wanted to use its lobbying power to influence government and its people power to act at the local level.
“At our meeting, we discussed what had happened at the state conference and we thought about that old saying – think globally, act locally,” she explained.
“I was looking for things that we could do to address domestic violence and I discovered that the nearest stockist of Escabags was in Harden, which is almost an hour’s drive away.”
Escabags has over 1500 stockists around Australia and has assisted 14,000 families in escaping domestic abuse.
Their mission is “to ensure there is at least one stockist in every suburb in Australia” and the branch agreed to help establish a local supply through the Gundagai Neighbourhood Centre and Gundagai Hospital.
“We’re not one of those lucky CWAs who have their own building so we had to partner with someone as a pickup location,” Kim said.
“We spoke to the Gundagai Neighbourhood Centre, and they were totally on board with it.
“So we actually now have a stock of kits and the bags which just have some emergency supplies to get them through the first couple of days.”
‘Escape bags’ contain high-quality essentials and comfort products for people in crisis. Photo: Stacy Jane.
The escape bags are discreet, non-gender-specific and contain a mix of essential hygiene and comfort items. They are made up for either a single adult or an adult and child.
“Our branch has decided that we will separately make some little bags for additional children because of course not everyone escaping domestic violence has only one child,” Kim said.
“Of course, we hope none of them ever gets used, but sadly we know that’s not the reality.”
Kim said the decision to partner with the Gundagai Neighborhood Centre was both convenient and practical, with many families engaging through the library and play groups.
“We’re very conscious of the fact that Gundagai is a very small town and a very small community, and one of the reasons we chose the Neighborhood Centre is because people go there for all sorts of reasons,” said Kim.
“So it’s a good place for someone to go without creating suspicion and causing the oppressive partner to say – what were you doing there?”
The second location at Gundagai Hospital allows for access to the Escabags 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
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