Victoria Women's Transition House desperately needs donors for its Christmas Hamper program
With more clients than ever before, the Victoria Women's Transition House Society (VWTH) is putting out a plea for help with its Christmas Hamper program.
Demand is up 30 per cent this year for the society's gift card hampers, which help women and their families to buy food and presents of their choice during the holiday season.
The transition house needs to fill at least 60 hampers for the holiday season and is about half way there.
Typically, a family will receive a minimum $100 gift card for groceries and approximately $50 to $100 per person for gifts.
Transition house clients who have accessed services in the past year are eligible for the donations.
“For women and women with children who are impacted and directly affected and fleeing intimate partner violence and abuse, it is an extremely difficult time,” says Susan Howard, development and communications director for the Victoria Women's Transition House Society.
“So to receive a Christmas hamper from caring folks in the community, it is enormously impactful.”
The society matches people and groups who sign up to be hamper donors with families and individuals from its pool of clients, which includes single women, mothers with children of all ages, and older women.
Donors can complete an online hamper application form. After receiving a form, VWTH contacts the donor to provide additional information about matched client/family, their Christmas wish list and program guidelines.
Christmas hampers need to be filled by the end of next week, Friday, Dec. 10.
In the past year, the Victoria Women’s Transition House has received over 3,000 calls to its crisis line as more and more women and their children seek help.
If you are impacted by domestic violence or abuse, you are encouraged to call their 24-Hour Crisis and Information Line at (250) 385-6611.
If you want to donate a Christmas hamper or want more information, visit the Victoria Women’s Transition House website or Facebook page.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
For the first time in report's history, Canada's air quality worse than U.S.
Thanks to wildfires, air quality in Canada is now worse than in the U.S., according to the 6th Annual World Air Quality Report.
A newspaper says video of Prince William and Kate should halt royal rumour mill. That's a tall order
Prince William and his wife Catherine have been filmed at a farm shop near their Windsor home, The Sun newspaper reported -- the first footage of Kate since she had abdominal surgery for an unspecified condition two months ago.
'You ask for your money, they disappear': Ontario man loses $17K to AI crypto scam
A Toronto man is spreading the word of a cryptocurrency scam that lures victims using AI-generated news sites after he lost $17,000 in investments.
DEVELOPING Canada's annual inflation rate ticked down to 2.8 per cent in February, defying expectations
Statistics Canada says the annual inflation rate edged down to 2.8 per cent in February.
Hertz CEO out following electric car 'horror show'
The company, which announced in January it was selling 20,000 of the electric vehicles in its fleet, or about a third of the EVs it owned, is now replacing the CEO who helped build up that fleet, giving it the company’s fifth boss in just four years.
High thoughts: The habits of Canadian cannabis users are revealed in a new StatCan report
Statistics Canada has conducted a series of surveys to measure the impacts of legalized cannabis since the Cannabis Act took effect in 2018. The latest one, the 2023 National Cannabis Survey, sheds light on users' preferences and habits last year.
Demand soars for solar eclipse glasses in Canada. Are they worth buying?
The demand for total solar eclipse glasses used to safely view the rare celestial event has been ramping up as sellers, along with astronomy and eye-care experts in Canada, warn that viewing the eclipse with the naked eye is dangerous.
Trump says Jews who vote for Democrats 'hate Israel' and their religion
Former U.S. president Donald Trump on Monday charged that Jews who vote for Democrats 'hate Israel' and hate 'their religion,' igniting a firestorm of criticism from the White House and Jewish leaders.
Toronto family doctor who called patient's body 'perfect' suspended for 3 months: tribunal
A family doctor in Toronto has been suspended for three months after a disciplinary tribunal found that he failed to follow proper protocols while examining a patient's breasts and made inappropriate comments about her body.