Caithness and Sutherland Women's Aid 'book fairies' set to return
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A women's aid group in the far north is preparing to welcome back its "book fairies" for a second year as part of its efforts to raise awareness of domestic violence.
Caithness and Sutherland Women's Aid (CASWA) will again be taking part in 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, a global campaign that runs from November 25 until December 10.
The charity provides support to women and children in Caithness and Sutherland who have experienced domestic abuse, and it carries out local activism over that period.
CASWA's book fairies will be distributing women-centred or feminist literature across the area during the 16 days.
Deputy manager Emma Fraser said: “This year our books were chosen by the CASWA team and board as well as our social media community.
“As we’re a charity with a limited budget, we decided to try out Amazon Wish List and invited our social media community to donate books.”
Emma said she was pleasantly surprised by the response – within 45 minutes of posting, five books had been donated.
She said that as donations are anonymised they were unable to thank the donors personally but wished to express CASWA's gratitude.
Support also came from Dornoch Bookshop.
Emma explained: “The owner, Maggie Hope, reached out to us to say she had read about our book fairy project on social media and ordered 20 books which Dornoch Bookshop would like to donate to the project.”
Karen Wilks, CASWA’s new manager who joined the service in August, said: “We were blown away by this generosity and support of our charity. We would like to say thank you to Maggie and all at Dornoch Bookshop for this extremely kind donation.”
The CASWA book fairies will be distributing books in various locations across Caithness and Sutherland during the 16 days from November 25.
"We are keen to start and have conversations with our community," Emma said. "We’re a team of readers who really believe in the power of the written word – how a story can build empathy and raise awareness, how a piece of non-fiction can change the narrative, influence attitudes and promote better understanding of issues.
“We hope this project, while aiming to raise awareness, also brings a wee bit of joy to the people who find our books. We’d love to hear from anyone who finds one of our book fairy books.”
Meanwhile, CASWA is keen to speak to men in the community and ask them to take the White Ribbon pledge to take a stand against gender-based violence.
CASWA has also partnered with the University of Highlands and Islands, Highland Violence Against Women Partnership, Rape and Sexual Abuse Service Highland (RASASH) and others to run a community event at UHI North Highland on Wednesday, November 30.
Emma said: “We’ve been touring around local high schools with one of the performances that will be taking place at our community event.
"It has had a great response in the schools and it really brings home the reality of domestic abuse. We’d love our community, particularly those who have taken part in our activism for the last two years, to pop along to show their support and join us in standing up against gender-based violence and abuse.
"Tickets are free and can be booked via Eventbrite which can be found on our social media."
Other events in the Highlands include a Reclaim the Night March organised by RASASH. It will take place in Inverness on Friday, November 25, meeting at Falcon Square from 6.30pm.
CASWA can be contacted by phone or email at 0345 408 0151 or info@caswa.org.uk and its website is www.caswa.org.uk
Contact details:
CASWA
Tel: 0345 408 0151
Web: www.caswa.org.uk
Email: info@caswa.org.uk
Scottish Domestic Abuse and Forced Marriage Helpline
Tel: 0800 027 1234 (24/7)
Web: https://www.sdafmh.org.uk
Rape and Sexual Abuse Service Highland (RASASH)
Tel: 03330 066909 (Support – Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9.30am to 1pm; Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1pm to 4.30pm)
Email: support@rasash.org.uk
