London Black Women's Project

London Black Women's Project (LBWP) is a voluntary sector organization providing support services to BME women in East London. Known as Newham Asian Women's Project (NAWP) until 2017, the organization was established in 1987 to provide women's refuges and other support services to Asian women in the London Borough of Newham.[1]

London Black Women's Project
Merged into1987
TypeCharity
Location
  • London

Newham Asian Women's Project

Newham Asian Women's Collective (NAWC), a predecessor of NAWP, was established in 1981 to campaign for and support the needs of South Asian women in Newham. NAWC found that racism obstructed access to services for South Asian women experiencing domestic violence. NAWC expanded into neighbouring boroughs in East London, resulting in the founding of East London Asian Women's Group (ELAWG).[2]

In 1987 Newham Asian Women's Project was established, opening a hostel providing emergency accommodation to women and children escaping domestic violence.[1] Gulshun Rehman was one of the founders.[3] NAWP subsequently grew to include a resource centre, refuge and second-stage hostel. In 1997 a counselling service was established for girls and women aged 12 to 55. NAWP offered information, advice, counselling and befriending services in the five major languages of Gujarati, Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi and Bengali.[1] Analysis of the women attending its mental health and counselling support groups showed that three out of five of its clients attempted self-harm.[1] The project's 1998 research report, Growing Up Young, Asian and Female in Britain, aimed to understand why self-harm and suicide were so prevalent among young British Asian women, and make recommendations aimed at improving the situation.[4]

London Black Women's Project

In 2015 it was agreed to expand the project's provision, and rename the project accordingly, and on International Women's Day 2016 the project was renamed London Black Women's Project.[5]

As part of a nationwide funding crisis for specialist providers of BME refuges,[6] the London Black Women's Project was threatened in 2019 with the loss of its council contract to run Newham's refuges for domestic and sexual violence victims. After protests from local campaigners and women's organizations,[7][8][9] the decision was reversed in November 2019, and LBWP's contract was extended for another year.[10]

The organization's patron is the actress and writer Meera Syal.[1][8]

References
  1. Yinka Sunmonu (2002). "Newham Asian Women's Project". In Alison Donnell (ed.). Companion to Contemporary Black British Culture. Routledge. pp. 218–219. ISBN 978-1-134-70025-7.
  2. London Black Women's Project: History
  3. Individual Stories, youcantbeatawoman.co.uk. Accessed 4 August 2020.
  4. Anita Bhardwaj, 'Growing Up Young, Asian and Female in Britain: A Report on Self-harm and Suicide', Feminist Review, No, 68 (Summer 2001), pp.52–67.
  5. London Black Women's Project (LBWP), devex.com. Accessed 6 August 2020.
  6. Maya Oppenheim, Women’s lives ‘at risk’ as refuges for black and minority ethnic domestic-violence survivors face closure, The Independent, 6 July 2019. Accessed 6 August 2020.
  7. Luke Acton, Project fears it may lose contract to run refuges in the borough for women, Newham Recorder, 11 July 2019. Accessed 6 August 2020.
  8. Women’s Groups call for Newham Mayor to reinstate funding for BME refuges, The Voice, 30 October 2019. Accessed 5 August 2020.
  9. Andrew Brookes, Women’s organisations call for council to recommission Plaistow-based refuge provider London Black Women’s Project, Newham Recorder, 1 November 2019. Accessed 5 August 2020.
  10. Andrew Brookes, London Black Women’s Project to continue running domestic violence service as council restarts new contract tender process, Newham Recorder, 8 November 2019. Accessed 5 August 2020.
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