This Mother's Day, let's change the way we tackle domestic violence.

Tania Burstin, CEO of mycause.com.au, discusses the domestic violence epidemic that Australia is currently facing, and what we can do to help fight back.

This week womens’ rights advocates called for an overhaul of the way the Government deals with domestic violence to stop the rising number of women being killed.

Last week, marked the 34th death of an Australian woman to be killed by her partner, or former partner, this year.

No matter who is to blame, or who should take responsibility for fixing this issue, I think everyone can agree that domestic violence has reached epidemic proportions in Australia, and whatever the solution may be – it MUST be addressed.

More on this: Tony Abbott wants to raise family violence “awareness”… while cutting funding for support services.

A couple of month’s back my team at mycause.com.au were discussing what we should feature in our Mother’s Day campaign this year. It was at this point we were speaking to the CEO of one of our charity partners, Impact For Women, who said that a few years back she became really overwhelmed at Mother’s Day as she saw the endless advertising campaigns of smiling mothers and their children.

“Everywhere I turned there were positive, happy images of Mums,” she disclosed.

“Yet I knew that for 1 in 3 women, Mother’s Day was filled with physical violence, verbal abuse and fear.”

As a wife, and mother of three children myself, this really struck a chord with me. It was upon further investigation that I found out in Victoria alone last year, police were called to 245 incidents of domestic abuse throughout May, with 9 occurring on Mother’s Day itself.

At this point I knew I had a role to play in helping other Mothers who may not be as fortunate as I was.

Not one to always take the conventional or mainstream method of doing things (I mean, I did start one of Australia’s first crowdfunding platforms back when people were still trying to work out what Facebook was – let alone crowdfunding) I thought, why are we waiting for the Government to fix this issue? Why are more than 700 women on accommodation waiting lists in Victoria at the moment? Why is the public housing waiting list up to 10 years in NSW? Why is a woman losing her life every 72 hours, when we actually have the power to change this? Right here, right now.

Read more: Rosie Batty just did something incredible for victims of domestic violence.

And that saw the birth of our Mother’s Day campaign – Make An Impact.
See, if 1 in every 35 000 Australians pledges $10 this Mother’s Day, we can put 1 woman and her children in a safe, secure, privately rented home – fully furnished with the first month’s rent and bond paid. We can stop the cycle of abuse. We can give hope. We can save a life.

I personally, would pay $10 just not to open tomorrow’s newspaper and see the face of yet another woman who has lost her life after being forced to stay in her abusive household.

And I know that many might say, it’s not our problem. But it is. Because the reality is that 1 in 4 children witness violence at home. Which means 1 in 4 children will be likely to grow up thinking violence is ok. And this issue is going to continue to intensify and multiply unless we – the people of Australia – take action.

The responsibility is on us, not the Government alone. We need to think outside of the square and that’s where I truly believe something like crowdfunding works. We are part of the solution. We own the solution. We are responsible for the solution.

Those who support crowdfunding campaigns are not passive. The focus is not on ‘what people should donate to’ but rather ‘empowering a community to create something of mutual benefit’.

And that’s where you play a part. Make an impact this Mother’s Day and help crowdfund safe, secure homes for women fleeing domestic violence. Make an impact and save a life.

To get involved, head to: https://www.mycause.com.au/mothersday