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It's not uncommon in waiting rooms to pick up a magazine from 2001. So a great way to recycle your magazines is to donate them to doctor’s surgeries, hospitals and medical centres.

That’s exactly how I recycled my Marie Claire this month. I chose to leave my mag with The Blue Mountains Women’s Health and Resource Centre in Katoomba.

The Women’s Health Centre is a feminist, community-based organisation, run by women for women. They are funded by NSW Health and NSW Community Services.

I personally prefer a Women's Health Centre over a medical centre for pap tests and contraception advice. Thursday nights are also free for women 25 and under to drop in without an appointment to see a GP.

They don’t just provide traditional medical practice but they also run women’s help groups and provide low cost counselling services. The Women’s Health Centre offers counselling for women by qualified and experienced female counsellors. They work with women on issues relating to depression, anxiety, grief, fertility and pregnancy. They also have counsellors, who specialise in domestic violence, sexual assault and childhood sexual assault. They can help refer you to legal advice, domestic violence court support, accommodation and couples counselling.
  
Here's a list of Women’s Health Centres around NSW   http://www.whnsw.asn.au/centres.htm

If you are a female who has been affected by verbal, physical or sexual abuse, and you'd like to talk to someone for professional advice, The Womens Health Clinic, is a perfect place for you to call or visit for help. But you can also see any GP to arrange a referral to a Psychologist. Psychologists' fees will be covered by Medicare, when you have a refferal from a GP. Medicare will cover up to 12 individual or group sessions. This is good to know if you are at all worried about the cost, or you think seeing a Psychologist is not worth it. If its free then you really have nothing to lose.

AM

'FEELING SAFE IN YOUR PHYSICAL SPACE' - By Meri Stuebe

Imagine this: you're walking home late one night. The darkness of the night enfolds you. The mist and lights play games in your mind, casting dancing shadows in front of you. You hear a rustle of leaves. A crunch of rubbish. Clip, clip clip. Footsteps quickening behind you. Your heart races as you pull your head phones from your ears. Throat constricted, hands sweaty. You quicken your pace and listen for those footsteps behind you...

Whilst some of you may read this paragraph and scoff (what a wuss...) Streets? Safety? What of it?I feel oh so safe on my meanderings with a few kick boxing classes under my belt.

I, however, am not one of those people. I have had numerous experiences of not feeling safe when I'm out alone at night.

Whilst the walk home, to the pub or a friend's house may be care free and easy for you, for many, even here in Sydney it is not the case. And this is not an issue that is isolated to woman. It is one that can be experienced by anyone regardless of gender, age, location and race. But being a lady and all, I have decided to write this from my feminine perspective.

After walking home late one night, (it may have been from the Townie but...ahem...lets not go into that) enduring cat calls and one guy following me for a few blocks, muttering his drunken rant of where he would like to take me and what he would like to do to me, I arrived home utterly shaken. After chatting to friends about it the following day it became clear that this kind of thing happens with startling regularity. Whilst it is an issue that, in most cases, is not life threatening it is one that we should not have to endure. It got me thinking about feeling safe in your neighbourhood and in the spaces and places you live in.

Whilst you may be thinking, where is my faith in the human race as I cynically suspect every second  person I pass at night may be a danger or a threat.  The statistics fuel the fire of my pessimistic view (?). The Australian Institute of Criminology identifies that at least 20% of women encounter violence at the hands of a stranger annually. This isn't even to mention the stats on domestic violence against women, verbal abuse or experiences of what is commonly termed and prosecuted as assault (which can be even the mere feeling of being threatened or your safety in jeopardy).

I am not trying to suggest that women should become uptight, super-vigilantes, fly kicking every person that comes near them.

Rather, something a little more modest. An increased awareness of the statistics and advocating amongst your friends for safety in numbers and the ol' text me when your home safe trick. And if you are one of the people who have never had an experience of feeling unsafe in your environment, take a moment to consider the women who have.

The question I pose to you, dear reader, is how do we go about making ourselves and each other feel safer in a society that can feel so unsafe?

Meri Stuebe

WORDS SPEAK LOUD FOR ACTIONS

There is an article in this month’s issue that is as chilling as it is wonderful. The article is on the photographer Grace Brown’s ‘project unbreakable.’ In 2011 Grace had the amazing idea to have rape victims write down the words they remember their attacker saying during the abuse. She then photographed them holding up what they had written.

I think it’s a great idea because words like these can be left out of a rape victim’s story. Actions speak louder than words, but for these people the words speak very loudly, helping to represent the action. It gives a profile, and a characterisation to who their rapist was - and this is very powerful. It’s simple yet gives an insight into a personal situation, in a way that ‘I was raped’ does not.

www.projectunbreakable.tumblr.com

According to the satistic I read in Marie Claire a women is raped every two hours in Australia.

AM

SO IT'S MAY, AY?

So far May has been hectic! Hence the reason I’m only sitting down with my Marie Claire and it’s already the 12^th.

In this issue I discovered that an Australian study of more the 2300 children, found the mums that had 2-6 alcoholic drinks a week during pregnancy had children with fever behavioural problems. This is great to know, and I’ll be sure to tell my pregnant friends. But I can’t help wonder if the findings of this study were actually that mums that had/still have 2-6 alcohlic drinks a week consider their children’s behaviour less of a problem...

War and Peace, a great article on women photographed in Sarajevo during civil war by war photographer Tom Stoddart. It revisits their lives and all in all, gives an insight into the strength of these women and how they lived through civil war.

There is also a Marie Claire photography competition. Tucked away in the editors letter there is a mention of it, no link, or deadline, but Frank does say that it’s themed around women!

 So here’s a link, and the deadline’s June 30^th.

www.marieclaireinternationalphotographyaward.com

AM