Thomasville domestic violence organization in need of supplies

THOMASVILLE, Ga. (WALB) - Businesses across Southwest Georgia have been impacted by COVID-19.

A domestic violence shelter in Thomasville has seen a lot of changes because of the pandemic, and are asking for the community’s help to continue what they do.

Halcyon Home is still open and always ready to help those families suffering from domestic violence.

But the coronavirus has changed the way the operate, and one thing they’re in need of is masks.

“We have not been bringing in new clients into the shelter due to social distancing, and we don’t have any masks," said Executive Director Deborah Murray.

She said she doesn’t feel safe bringing in new clients to Halcyon Home for Battered Women, in efforts to minimize any risk of infection.

“We’ll start bringing clients back into the shelter, but we’re only going to be bringing in four families, because we only have four rooms. We don’t want to mix families, so we’re going to do one family per room," said Murray.

For now, they’re housing clients in hotels, which Murray said is a huge cost to the domestic violence shelter, on top of everything else they’re in need of, but haven’t been able to get a hold of yet.

“Cleaning supplies, paper products, hand sanitizer, masks, and gloves. Day to day, it’s a struggle. Okay, what are we running low on today? We’ve got to go out and find this somewhere,” said Murray.

They’re still cleaning around the clock to minimize the risk of infection.

Murray said staff are continuing to work as much as possible, helping families in need.

“There’s services we can still provide, even though we’re not bringing anybody new in at this time, but that hopefully will change. I mean this is a whole new experience for us too so we’re kind of just been learning along the way,” she said.

Murray said they’re hoping to receive some masks this week from the Georgia Coalition of Domestic Violence.

Right now, their main goal is getting families back into the shelters and that starts with them receiving those masks.

Murray said their thrift store in Thomasville is back open under certain guidelines, which is from Wednesday through Saturday, from 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

If you’d like to donate, call (229) 226-6682.

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