AFC Bournemouth Cherries Community Fund helps children affected by domestic abuse

The refuge, which is run by local housing and support provider BCHA, plans to use the donation to convert a garage, which is damp and used for storage, into a computer room for the children to use. Currently the refuge has no computer access for the women and children and the building also has no wi-fi service.

Naomi James, BCHA’s project leader for Domestic Abuse Services in Bournemouth, said, “We are very grateful for the generosity of AFC Bournemouth Cherries Community Fund. Our ambition is to have a computer hub with three work stations that would give children the opportunity to learn, complete school or college homework tasks and projects, and also have fun in a safe environment.

However, the refuge still requires an additional £6,000 of funding to complete the project, so will need to find the remainder via donations, fundraising and grants.

Naomi added, “While the AFC Bournemouth donation won’t pay for the whole project, it will be an enormous step forward in helping to kickstart the refurbishment. If there are local people or businesses out there that could possible donate time, resources or materials to help us complete the conversion, we would really love to hear from them.

When women get into the refuge their priority is their children, so we desperately want to provide a computer room that would benefit both women and children and help promote digital inclusion.”