In December 2012, Rose McCarthy won the annual Women’s Achievement Award at the prestigious Hamara Awards Ceremony for her amazing work in developing the Maternity Stream of Sanctuary. Rose, a founder member of the Leeds City of Sanctuary movement, has been focusing her remarkable passion and creativity in the Maternity Stream project as an expression of her desire to make sure that every AS&R mother can enjoy the same rights, help and privileges available to others.

Driven by this passion and conviction, Rose has single-handedly reached out to scores of pregnant women in Leeds, through Choto Moni, a community group in Harehills, and networks created through her befriending project at Refugee Council. She has gone the extra mile again and again, offering to be a birth partner for several frightened new mums, she has driven new mums miles to find the right services, chased her friends and neighbours to find furniture, clothes and toys for newly arrived families, and has spent hours on the phone and in offices, petitioning for mums who have been made destitute or left without help. Most important is the sense of empowerment Rose puts into ‘her mums’, evidenced by scores of them now volunteering, with some having spoken at national events on the importance of sanctuary in maternity services.

For more information or to sign up for the maternity stream please contact: [email protected] Or [email protected].