Torness gives funding boost to local women’s charity
A Lothians charity which offers emotional and practical support for women and children affected by domestic abuse has become the latest beneficiary of EDF Energy’s Scottish Charity Fund.
The owner of Torness power station has donated £8,000 from the fund to Women’s Aid – East and Midlothian.
One in five women in Scotland experience domestic abuse and it affects 100,000 children in Scotland. Women’s Aid – East and Midlothian supports women and children who have experienced domestic abuse, campaigns to raise awareness of this issue and supports other domestic and sexual violence services throughout the area.
The organisation started out in 1979 with the use of only one refuge, offering shared accommodation. It now operates two crisis centres, one in Dalkeith and one in Musselburgh. It offers a drop in provision, support and crisis telephone line and one to one appointments at these offices. It has refuge accommodation in East and Midlothian that offers support to up to 17 families and offers outreach service for women living in their own accommodation across East and Midlothian.
Over the past year EDF Energy has donated more than £100,000 to Scottish charities. Most of that money has benefitted groups near to its bases at Torness, Hunterston B and East Kilbride.
Torness Station Director, Paul Winkle said: “Figures from the Scottish Government show that the levels of domestic abuse reported to Police Scotland have dropped but there are still too many women experiencing abuse in the home. The support Women’s Aid – East and Midlothian provides offers them a vital lifeline. I’m delighted that I was able to hand over a cheque for £8000 to help them carry out their work in area.”
Julie Watson, Manager at Women’s Aid East and Midlothian said: “We are absolutely delighted to be chosen to receive this award. Our service is extremely busy so the £8,000 donation is a very significant resource that has enabled us enhance the work that we do with women, children and young people.
“We were able to allocate £4,000 to improve the resources for our families living in one of our refuges in East Lothian. The remaining £4,000 is being used to help with the costs of creating a comfortable environment in a new refuge that we hope to open in the next few months within East Lothian.”
For more information contact:
Fiona McCallExternal Communications Manager (Scotland)
01355 846281
07813 232347
Fiona.McCall@edf-energy.com
EDF Energy in Scotland
In Scotland EDF Energy operates Hunterston B in North Ayrshire and Torness in East Lothian which employ over 1,000 staff and around 500 contracting partners across the two power stations. EDF Energy employs a further 200 office based staff in East Kilbride. As well as generating enough power to serve some 4 million homes the company also provides gas and electricity to over 80,000 Scottish customers with around half of those opting for one of the company’s Blue+ products which are backed by low-carbon generation. We operate two windfarms in the Scottish Borders and make sure we buy enough electricity generated from a low-carbon nuclear source to match every unit of electricity we estimate our Blue customers use. EDF Energy is proud to power up some of the largest organisations in the UK, including supplying almost all public sector bodies in Scotland with after being awarded Scotland’s largest electricity supply contract by annual volume from April 2013. Following a landmark agreement with Network Rail the company also provides nuclear-backed Blue energy to power up the UKs electric rail network, covering most of the south east of England and the main lines from London to Edinburgh and Glasgow, as well as the Merseyrail network around Liverpool and the Glasgow suburban network.