CAMPAIGNING WI members in Dorset are to focus on helping women affected by violence.

The chairman of the Dorset Federation of the Women’s Institute is urging the county’s 3,600 members to join forces in a bid to eliminate sex trafficking.

The organisation has been asked by Harriet Harman, government minister for women and equality, to play a part in tackling nationwide violence against women.

Dorset WI chairman Margaret Knight, who attended a national conference on the issue, thinks the WI’s no-nonsense approach will make a difference to the problem.

She said: “The Government knows that the WI will get on and do things. The WI isn’t biased towards a particular way of thinking. We’ve achieved many things in the past and this is what we want to achieve in the future.”

A national survey of 147 WI members found that almost half have experienced violence or know someone who has experienced a form of violence in their lifetime.

A third of these cases were domestic violence and almost a quarter were rape or assault.

The survey found that women in rural areas are particularly affected due to a lack of support services.

Mrs Knight said the county’s WIs want to send out the message that there is no shame in reporting domestic violence.

“Stop keeping it quiet. We have to be honest and speak out about what’s happening. Some may not think that domestic violence is going on in sleepy little Dorset villages, but it is. We want to put an end to that.

“It’s not just physical abuse that these women are receiving, it’s financial abuse and emotional abuse,” she said.

Dorset WI members will meet early next year to hear a talk from Dorset Police about violence in the county.

The 111 Dorset branches of the organisation are planning to put their full support behind women’s outreach services in Dorset and will campaign for more women’s refuges.

Women across England and Wales are invited to take part in the new research by visiting www.thewi.org.uk/campaigns