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Your home should be a place of safety, comfort and tranquility but for domestic abuse victims the home is an altogether different realm. Instead, feelings of dread, trepidation and anxiety are routine – as victims nervously await yet another aggressive outburst from their abuser.
But sadly, a chronic national shortage of safe spaces for victims means a woman urgently wanting to flee her abuser is turned away from a refuge every two hours across the country.
This is why The Independent launched its Brick by Brick campaign alongside leading domestic abuse charity Refuge to raise funds to build two homes for women and children escaping abusive partners. The campaign, which started in September, surpassed its initial £300,000 target within weeks thanks to generous donations from readers – with £576,984 amassed to date.
Readers and donors are able to take an inside look at what the house is expected to look like, including features that will allow a survivor and her children to rebuild their lives in safety, here.
The houses, the first that housebuilder Persimmon has ever built specifically for domestic abuse survivors, will be semi-detached, with a living room, open-plan kitchen and dining room as well as a private garden.
For those keen to know more about the campaign and the properties that we are building, here are the key figures:
The House(s) The Independent Built: In numbers
Length of the campaign: 100 days
Money raised during the campaign: £576,984
Number of donations during appeal: 2,282
Amount of bricks for two houses: 10,946
Number of roof tiles for two homes: 1,500
The number of builders who constructed the houses: Up to 50 builders working on the site each day
Size of two houses: gross floor area of 1357.12 square feet
Amount of windows: 12
Doors: 26
Number of radiators: 14
Bottles of glue: 26
Mortar: 16 m³
Chipboard: 52
Ridge tiles: 20
Concrete blocks: 78
MDF pencil round skirting: 38
Your support is still welcome, all donations received will be spent on Refuge’s lifesaving work housing survivors of domestic abuse.
The national domestic abuse helpline offers support for women on 0808 2000 247, or you can visit the Refuge website. There is a dedicated men’s advice line on 0808 8010 327.
