Mayor announces Foyle Women’s Aid and The Koram Centre as her chosen charities

The Mayor made the formal announcement at the Guildhall this week and said she was pleased to support two charities who work directly on the ground to serve people in distress.

“I am delighted and proud to use my Mayoral year to help two local charities who do critical work in our local community to provide front line support to the vulnerable and distressed,” she said.

“Both charities rely on the selfless generosity of a network of volunteers to ensure a professional and experienced support is available at all times to those in greatest need of care and safety.

“I hope my year in office can help highlight the critical service that The Koram Centre and Foyle Women’s Aid offer and help raise funds to allow them to continue their often life-saving work.”

The Koram Centre in Strabane have a team of experienced and qualified counsellors and psychotherapists who offer professional therapeutic intervention and psychosocial support to people in distress.

Their services include face to face counselling, integrative and person centred cognitive behavioural therapy, child and adolescent counselling, solution focused brief therapy, EMDR, art therapy, addiction counselling and psychodynamic counselling.

Wenda Graham, Manager at the Koram Centre, thanked the Mayor for choosing their service, saying: “We are overjoyed and grateful that the Mayor has chosen to support the Koram Centre during her year in office,” she said. “Donations from the public support the continuation of our much needed services so we rely on their generosity to make it an accessible service for everyone.

“If you are suffering in silence and are feeling frightened or in emotional pain, you don’t have to go through it alone, we are here to help and we will provide you with a safe space with a trusted and highly trained therapist who will have lots of experience of working therapeutically with others who feel the same, we will listen and support you through it.”

Derry based Foyle Women’s Aid is a charity that aims to eliminate domestic abuse and sexual violence by raising awareness, preventative educational advice and support.

The service provides secure, supported, short term accommodation at confidential locations and works to meet the needs of children and young people who have experienced domestic abuse.

Marie Brown, Director of Foyle Women’s Aid, said the Mayor’s support will help raise awareness of their service which operates in the Derry, Strabane, Dungiven and Limavady areas.

“On behalf of Foyle Women’s Aid I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Mayor for choosing to support our charity during her year in office.

“The work carried out by Foyle Women’s Aid makes a real difference to the lives of individuals within our community, we protect women and children from abusive situations and work to prevent them from occurring in the future.

“The support of the Mayor will help raise the profile of the domestic abuse and sexual violence services we offer and will help raise funds that will help us to support some of the most vulnerable members of our community.”

The Mayor will host a range of events over the coming year and donate the proceedings to her charities. These will include the Mayor’s Family Fun Day, Christmas Choral Festival and a Flag Day on St Patrick’s Day.

Further details on all events will be announced throughout the year and the public can keep up to date by accessing the Mayor’s Charity page at www.derrystrabane.com/mayor/charity.

For more information on either charity visit their websites at www.koramcentre.com and www.foylewomensaid.org.

For regular updates on the Mayor follow her on Facebook and Twitter @Mayordcsdc.