Businesswomen across Cavan and Monaghan are filling handbags with everyday essentials for women and children who have left abusive homes. The Cavan-Monaghan Mums in Business Network is behind the local "Hopeful Handbags" campaign, and an event is planned for Friday 6 November at Monaghan Library on the Peace Campus in Monaghan Town, Northern Sound reported on Monday.
The filled bags will be given out through established partnerships with women's refuges and support services, via Safe Ireland in Cavan and Monaghan, according to the station.
"When a community moves as one"
Newbliss businesswoman Zandra Montgomery, one of the network members involved, told Northern Sound the initiative is about people from right across the community "coming together for something bigger than any of us". She said it was "proof" that when a community moves as one, it can "change lives".
The idea is simple. A handbag, often one that's been gently used, is packed with the kind of things a woman may have had to leave behind when she got out: toiletries, hygiene products and small items that give back a bit of dignity in the first days after leaving.
Drop-off points wanted across the county
The organisers are now looking for drop-off and collection points across Cavan and Monaghan. Local businesses, community centres and faith organisations are being asked to sign up, so that people in towns like Carrickmacross, Castleblayney, Clones and Ballybay don't have to travel to Monaghan Town to donate.
Northern Sound did not give a time for the 6 November event or a full list of what's needed. Anyone wanting to help, or to host a collection point, is best to contact the Cavan-Monaghan Mums in Business Network directly; we'll add details here once they're published.
How the bags have worked elsewhere
A campaign under the same name has already run in the north-west. In April, Bundoran Community Centre held a coffee morning for Hopeful Handbags Global NonProfit and asked people to bring a gently used handbag with essentials, Donegal Live reported. Its suggested list included full-size shampoo and conditioner, deodorant, lotion, a notepad or journal, hairbrushes, razors, hair ties, socks, sanitary products and pens, with extras like make-up, toothbrushes, toothpaste, tissues, hand sanitiser and scarves. Organisers there also asked volunteers to write handwritten cards with a few words of encouragement for each bag.
"Every bag packed in Donegal stays in Donegal," the Bundoran centre said at the time. The Hopefull Handbags Global NonProfit website says the charity supports survivors of domestic abuse and their children, and invites people to host local bag drops and raise funds.
It is not yet clear whether the Monaghan list will be the same, so check with the organisers before you shop.
If you need help now
If you or someone you know is affected by domestic abuse, the Women's Aid National Freephone Helpline is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week on 1800 341 900. In an emergency, call 999 or 112.
