Haven Society responds to need
Half of all Canadian women have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence since the age of 16 and every year in Canada, up to 360,000 children are exposed to domestic violence. 58,486 women and 36,840 children sought refuge in one of 473 shelters across Canada between April 1, 2003 and March 31, 2004.
Haven House, a transitional house in Nanaimo for women fleeing abuse, sees 400-500 women annually, with another 2,000 women and children in programs offered by the society. The organization has launched a capital building campaign to raise $1 million toward the construction of a new community services building. (more…)
Harm Reduction Victoria launched what it calls a “guerilla needle exchange” in downtown Victoria in the middle of a so-called “no-go zone”—an area that has been off-limits for needle distribution for a year. Kim Toombs, a member of the harm reduction group, told the Victoria Times Colonist that the group plans to hand out clean needles every evening to drug users in the area.
As people age, a decline in thinking abilities and memory is expected, but when that decline is much faster than normal, the consequences can be devastating to those people and their loved ones. Such a sharp decline is known as dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease is the most frequent type of dementia in the elderly.*