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Our Training Team

Women’s Aid’s Training and Development Department has a proven track record of designing and delivering specialist domestic violence and abuse training to local and national organisations throughout Ireland.

We support organisations in the statutory, community and voluntary sectors, as well as corporate bodies, to enhance and improve responses to women who are subjected to domestic violence and abuse. All Women’s Aid training is informed and guided by our decades of experience directly supporting women and by models of best practice.

Hanien Alouzi

Hanien joined the Training Department in November 2022 as the Health Training Administrator. Her role consists of providing administrative and logistical support to the training done in collaboration with the HSE National Infant and Women Health Programme, which aims at providing Domestic Abuse Awareness training to healthcare professionals across the 19 maternity services in Ireland. She also provides support to the Maternity Project done in collaboration with 4 maternity hospitals to provide tailored training, outreach services and raise awareness on the issue of domestic abuse. Previous to this role, Hanien completed an MSc in Comparative Social Change offered jointly at Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin.

Ruth O’Dea

Ruth joined Women’s Aid in 2012 and is currently the Training and Development Manager.  She has worked on issues of social justice, human rights and equality for over 20 years. Ruth has a B.A. in Single Honours History from Trinity College Dublin and is a graduate of the Masters in Equality Studies programme at UCD’s School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice. Her work with Women’s Aid includes overseeing the development and delivery of training programmes for frontline staff on best practice responses to women and children subjected to domestic abuse. Another part of the Training Department’s work is the Employer Engagement Project which supports employers to create safe and supportive workplaces for victims/survivors of domestic abuse. Before Ruth joined Women’s Aid she worked for migrant rights NGOs for a number of years and as a Regional Training Executive with the Citizens Information Board.

Deborah Warren

As Training Administrator Deborah is responsible for providing administrative support for the Training & Development department and managing training events. She started in Women’s Aid in 2018 as a receptionist and has also provided administrative assistance to the Services department.  Deborah has obtained qualifications in community development, youth work and cultural studies which has enabled her to work and volunteer in organisations dealing with women’s rights, youth, and migrant justice. She also has experience of customer service from the retail sector.

Hannah Wayte

Hannah joined the training department in 2021, following her contribution to Women’s Aid as a volunteer on the 24hr National Freephone Helpline from 2019. In her role as Project Lead Trainer, she steers the Employer Engagement project, a specialist service for employers with the aim of creating a supportive, understanding, and safe workplace environment for victims/survivors of domestic violence and abuse. Hannah has worked in the training field since 2009 as an educator and project manager, and in recent years guided the diversity, equity, and inclusion work for the Dublin site of a global tech company. She is currently studying for a MSc in Equality Studies at UCD.

Niamh Wilson

Niamh Wilson has worked in the area of domestic abuse for over 30 years. She has held various positions in domestic abuse organisations primarily working directly with survivors of intimate partner abuse. In addition, Niamh has held positions in training, development and policy work. She combines working as a trainer in Women’s Aid with independent research and her particular interest is in researching learning supports for frontline professionals responding to domestic abuse. She has recently completed a PhD in Maynooth University.