WAO ANNUAL REPORT 2009 - Women's Aid Organisation

There was a slight decrease in calls from the previous year; 1229 in 2009 compared to 1318 in
2008. In the first half of the year, we received an average of 130 calls a month and it slowly
dwindled to about 80 a month. Most of the callers called in for domestic violence issues
although there were other issues such as marriage problems, problems with their children and
rights in a marriage. Most of the callers were from the Klang Valley, but there were callers as far
as Sabah and Sarawak and the East Coast. Many knew of our numbers from the telephone
operator or after reading about us and our services in the various newspapers and magazines.
The telephone has been a very popular mode of seeking assistance, not only for themselves but
for their relatives and friends. We always encourage the callers who are calling on behalf of an
abused woman to get the woman herself to seek help.
1.4 Face to Face Counselling
The number of women who sought this service increase from 72 to 138 this year. Only about 14
of them were our ex-clients and residents who wanted us to spend time with them. There were
many new clients who did not need shelter but wanted counselling and guidance about their
problems and issues similar to those phoning in. These women were happier to be meet a social
worker in person as they could communicate better and have a clearer understanding of their
solutions than if they talked over the phone.
1. 5 E-mail Enquiries
We received 174 e-mails and it comes to an average of 15 emails a month. Some of them are
follow-up e-mails pertaining to domestic violence or their rights in a marriage.
However, there were months in the middle of the year where there were more than 24 enquires
and these were from college students and researchers who wanted to know more about our
services or wanted to interview a domestic violence survivor. They were mostly for their term
paper or projects whereby they had about a week to complete. Sometimes it was quite
frustrating as the students do not read and research much and ask a lot of basic questions for
which they could have easily obtained the information from our website. There was one
situation where the students gave us 100 sets of questionnaires but WAO declined!.
The e mail queries regarding problems were sometimes too brief with few facts, but we took it
as a challenge to address them tactfully, encouraging them to call to clarify further and offer
them choices after a better understanding of their issues. This mode of communication is
getting popular as they can pour out their woes in the privacy of their home or office, especially
from distant places. The other e-mails were about procedures how to get a birth certificate,
registration of child of a single woman to school, adoption procedures, housing, business and
personal loans, legal referrals and relationship problems.
In 2009, we received several emails from Australia agencies which supported refugees. Their
clients were in Australia seeking refugee status.
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