A women’s refuge in Birmingham has received financial and volunteer support from a leading regional building society.

The West Brom has provided a £3,000 grant to Roshni, while members of staff spent a day painting the inside of the building which houses the women for up to six months.

Roshni, which was formed in 1979, offers support and refuge to South Asian women and children now living in the UK who have suffered from, and are fleeing, domestic violence, honour based crimes and forced marriage.

Around 60 women a year benefit from the charity’s services and Chief Executive Kulbinder Chohan acknowledged that the West Brom’s assistance had been invaluable.

She said: “We have built up a relationship with the West Brom over the last 10 years and the help and support they have offered us has been fantastic.

“The £3,000 donation has gone towards creating a new children’s play area at the refuge while the painting has made a massive difference to our building.

“One of our big challenges when women first come to us to start their programme is to restore their sense of self respect, and having the inside of the building painted and creating a warm and friendly environment really helps in achieving this.”

The West Brom’s donation was made through the Mercian Community Trust, a partnership between the society and the Diocese of Lichfield to support community groups and charitable causes in the region.

Manpreet Ahluwalia, Customer Relations Officer for the West Brom, who was among the volunteers, said: “We are proud to be able to support Roshni who do outstanding work helping a vulnerable section of the community.

“We were given a short presentation about the refuge before we started painting and it certainly brought home the importance of what we were doing.

“Overall it was a thoroughly rewarding experience for everyone at the West Brom who got involved.”