Escabags founder Stacy Jane is a domestic violence survivor who is now helping others fleeing abuse by giving them access to a “grab-and-go” bag.

The tote bags, which are stocked by businesses across the nation including in Kiama, are hand-sewn by volunteers and packed full of toiletries and necessities for domestic violence survivors who have fled with nothing. Stacy knows what that feels like.

Several years ago the UK national was on a cruise in Australia when her violent ex-partner viciously assaulted her. Bloodied and bruised, she was thousands of kilometres from home with no passport and no money. The perpetrator had locked her belongongs in a safe and all she had were the clothes on her back. 

Passengers in the cabin next door heard the assault and alerted the ship’s security. A family on the cruise, horrified by Stacy’s injuries, took her under their wing and invited her to stay with them until she was due to return to the UK. 

“They said to me ‘this is the first day of your new life and you’re coming home with us’. So I did.”

That single act of kindness changed Stacy’s life, in fact it probably saved it. Now she is doing the same for other domestic violence survivors. For the past four years Stacy and her team of volunteers have made and supplied the free escape bags to more than 1400 stockists across the nation, including Carter Ferguson Lawyers and Baimed in Kiama.

The Kiama-Shellharbour Zonta Club has also signed up to distribute the bags, via founder Rita Sullivan’s Knickerbockers store.

Diagnosed with PTSD, Stacy began sewing tote bags as a form of therapy while living in a women’s shelter after returning to the UK. 

“I really didn’t know what I was going to use them for, I thought my Nan might be able to give them to her church pals,” she says. 

A few months later, when Stacy’s perpetrator tracked her down she “sold everything on eBay” and bought a one-way ticket to Australia, with support from the Aussie family who first took her in.

It was here she began carving out a new life. Then Hannah Clark and her three children were murdered in Brisbane by Hannah’s former partner. It broke Stacy’s heart and spurred her into action. She stayed up all night creating a website and the following day Escabags was born.

The simple business plan started off small. Stacy and a team of dedicated friends sought kind-hearted donors to fill the bags they had sewn with toiletries and other things those fleeing violence might need. 

“Escabags are a grab-and-go, fast solution so people don’t have to return home to the perpetrator,” Stacy says. “We know when the perpetrator no longer has control over that person, that’s when we see loss of life.”

Each week escape bags are sent to businesses across the nation, free of charge. Stacy’s goal is to have escape bags available in every suburb of Australia.

“Then I found out there were 2800 suburbs,” she laughed. “But unfortunately the need is there. One small act of kindness changed my life. You have no way of knowing what

impact it can have on someone’s life, but it saved mine.”

Businesses can sign up to receive escape bags via the Escabags website https://escabags.org/become-a-stockist/