mary j blige opens women’s refuge in new york

Having lately become much more vocal in her support of women who suffer in violent relationships, Mary J Blige has taken things to the next level by teaming up with Frida Giannini, Creative Director at Gucci, and several New York-based organisations to open a new women’s refuge in Yonkers, NY. The new centre is the latest development in her campaigning for better service provision to victims of domestic abuse and follows the establishment of her Foundation For The Advancement Of Women Now last year.

Speaking to CNN about new venture, she said: “All age ranges will be able to come to this centre. Women from all walks of life, not just women from poverty-stricken areas. Whatever it is, they’ll be able to come here. There are gonna be psychologists here, doctors here, day care centres here. Anything that you need or they need to be able to better themselves is here for them.”

Mary sees the cause as a natural extension of her celebrity status and believes that other famous folks should embrace good causes. ”We’re not given this job to just hold onto this stuff and die with it,” she told CNN. “We’re given this job to be able to touch someone and say, ‘me, too’, because they look up to us and look to us for help and guidance and want to be able to relate to us.”

Written by: Alan Pedder

Tags: mary j blige

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 12:50 pm and is filed under news, the inside leg. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.