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• Between April 1, 2007 and March 31, 2008, approximately 101,000 women and children were admitted to 569 shelters in Canada.

• On April 16, 2008, the survey snapshot day, 4,273 women and 3,361 children were residing in various shelters across Canada. Nearly 80% of these women and children were attempting to flee an abusive situation and the remainder were seeking shelter for reasons other than abuse.

• On snapshot day, nearly half of the female victims of abuse in shelters were admitted with their children. Slightly more than one in five women did not have their children with them when they were admitted, and the other women did not have any parenting responsibilities or their situation was unknown.

• Psychological or emotional abuse, as well as physical abuse, were the types of abuse cited by women seeking shelter.For three-quarters of women in shelters, the abuse was inflicted by a spouse or former spouse.

• One quarter (25%) of the women in shelters on the snapshot day were there to protect their children from witnessing the abuse being inflicted on their mother. The women also wanted to protect their children from abusive situations, such as of psychological abuse (20%) and physical abuse (12%)

• More than 9 in 10 women who left shelters for abused women on April 16, 2008 did not plan to return to live with their spouses.