52 Lives

#126 Gabrielle

Request: Donations / gift cards to help her start again

This week, we want to help a woman from Queensland, Australia, who is about to leave a women’s refuge.

Gabrielle is 20 years old and has a 4 year old son. Gabrielle suffered terribly at the hands of her partner. He was very violent towards her, and ended up putting her in hospital with severe head injuries late last year. These injuries are still causing her a lot of on-going medical issues.

Since leaving hospital, Gabrielle and her little boy have been living in a women’s refuge. They have no family support and nowhere else to go. Although she is now safe, the refuge is a long way from her home and everything she knows, so it has been a very emotional time for her and her support worker said Gabrielle is feeling very lost. and very alone.

Gabrielle has just been allocated accommodation for her and her son and, although she is scared, she is ready to move out of the refuge to try to make a new start. But she has absolutely nothing - no furniture, no bedding, no kitchenware, no toys, no books - nothing.

Gabrielle and her son have been through so much and we want to do something kind for them. With your help, we want want to help make their new home a lovely one, and show them that there are a lot of good people out there who care about them. 

What We Need

1. Donations: For furniture, household essentials, and some things for her son  (we wanted to set up an Amazon wishlist for them, but as they are in Australia it is trickier, so instead 52 Lives will use your donations to buy all the items they need and have them delivered directly to Gabrielle). To make a donation, please click the Donate button below. 

2. Gift cards for groceries: To help cover Gabrielle's food bills for a little while. To buy a gift card, please click on the link below. They can be posted to the address below (please don't send any parcels to this address, as it can only take letters). Also, please note that postage on gift cards is AU$5.50.

3. If you would like to post something specific to the family instead of making a donation or buying a gift card, please use the form below to let us know and we send you more details on how to send items (this may not be possible for very large items)

What We Did

Support flooded in from all over the world, and local businesses and supporters also rallied around to help. Thanks to all of you, this is what we have been able to give Gabrielle and her son:

- AU$670 in gift cards to pay for their groceries for a couple of months while they get back on their feet.
- Furniture for virtually their entire flat, including a washing machine, beds, bedding, crockery, vacuum cleaner, a desk and lots of beautiful things for her son.
- We also provided lovely clothes and shoes for them both.

Thankyou so much to everyone who donated money or goods for Gabrielle. A special thankyou to Sian at Finn & Dash Toys for helping so much, Sara at www.kgclass.com for donating some lovely new shoes, and to Daniella, Louise, Lara, Sam and Rachel for providing so many things for the flat.

And finally, I’d like to thank two people who absolutely embody kindness - John and Joy (my mum and dad!). They live near Gabrielle and I roped them into helping collect all the goods for her. But they went so much further than that - they offered to make repairs to her home, they made curtains for her, bought all the extra things they saw she needed and, above all, gave her such heartfelt moral support that has helped her settle into her new community and feel like she isn't alone anymore. You are two of the kindest people I know!