By Aidan Thompson
A campaign has been launched to help save Shama Women’s Centre after it was threatened with imminent closure.
The women’s centre, in Highfields, Leicester, was founded in 1985 and was in receipt of £30,000 a year from the city council but this is now at risk of being axed in April as it will be unable to provide any further services without funding.
Funding from local councils is fundamental for projects like the Shama Women’s Centre to survive especially with the competition between the increasing number of charities for very limited grants.
The Shama Women’s CentreKhudeja Amer-Sharif, co-ordinator of Shama Women’s Centre, said: “Thousands of women in Leicester will suffer isolation, mental health inequalities, cultural and social barriers with nowhere else to turn to.
Empowering women across the city from vulnerable backgrounds and supporting those with bereavement, domestic abuse and helping them overcome isolation has been core to the centre’s values for more than 30 years.
She also said: “It is the only women’s centre in Leicester that provides social, well-being and educational activities in a culturally conducive environment
“Without it [the funding] we won’t be able to carry on. We have been applying to other sources of funding left, right and centre but it is so competitive.”
These services are now under major threat.
The refuge is urging people to join the already 2,000-strong petition to help save Shama Women’s Centre.
