Christmas donations ‘uplifting’ Tauranga Women’s Refuge

Cherie Anderson, and her mother Jan Anderson with some of the gifts donated on Sunday. Photo / Supplied

More than 100 Christmas presents will be given to Tauranga Women’s Refuge thanks to a mother-daughter duo who organised a collection for their street.

The refuge’s manager says it’s one of many donations helping to “lift the energy” of Tauranga women and children impacted by domestic violence during the holidays.

Roughly 50 Belk Rd residents - ranging in age from 1 to 89 - turned up at Jan Anderson’s house last Sunday armed with presents for women and children at the refuge.

The idea for the collection, organised by Anderson’s daughter Cherie, came about after the realisation of “how tough” many families were doing it right now.

Cherie - a teacher at the Tauranga Northern Health School - said it was about knowing “how hard life is for some people and how hard they work for little gain”.

She chose to donate presents to the refuge because of the “amazing” support they provided to women and children.

“We know it’s a really worthy cause.”

In the lead-up to the collection, Cherie’s 21-year-old son did a “good old-fashioned letterbox drop” distributing about 150 leaflets to residents on Belk Rd and surrounding streets. She also made posts about it on social media.

Cherie said the response from residents was “really positive” and the event also helped “unify community members” - many of whom had not yet met one another.

“A lot of people out there are willing to do what they can in the littlest of ways. It doesn’t matter how small the gesture is, collectively it can be big.”

She hoped the collection would become an annual event that would “grow and grow” as more people found out about it.

“This is the beginning of a new community network.”

More than 100 presents will be taken to the refuge on Tuesday. Photo / Supplied

Jan described the atmosphere on Sunday as “heartwarming”, saying it proved “everybody likes to help in one way or another”.

“Everybody wants to give - sometimes it just takes getting together to get it prompted.

“People generally do want to help those who are less fortunate - and sometimes they just don’t know how to go about doing it.”

She said more than 100 presents would be delivered to the refuge on Tuesday and people unable to attend were continuing to drop off items this week.

There was a “huge range” of presents dropped off from kids’ toys, board games, grocery parcels and supermarket vouchers, she said.

She encouraged other community members in Tauranga to “do the same” organising collections for charities in need.

“It’s a great feel-good thing. We got as much pleasure out of organising it hopefully than those who will receive the gifts.”

Tauranga Women's Refuge manager Hazel Hape. Photo / George Novak

Tauranga Woman’s Refuge manager Hazel Hape, who has been with the service for 17 years, said donations like this helped to “lift the energy and vibration of families impacted by domestic violence”.

“It’s an opportunity to shine the light on the impact of domestic violence but to be encouraging, uplifting and bring some joy.”

Asked about how much demand the refuge was experiencing right now, Hape said there was always a high need for their services.

“Because refuge is a 24-hour seven days a week crisis response to domestic violence we are always busy. It’s not about swiping in and then swiping out at 5pm.”

Speaking generally, she said the country was in “struggle street” with the impacts of Covid-19, poverty, and housing issues all contributing to rates of family and domestic violence incidents.

“The last three years have continued to put significant pressure on families that are already vulnerable, already struggling and then domestic and family violence incidents occur.”

Hape said “every year without fail” gifts, food donations and koha arrived at the refuge doors around Christmas easing the pressure on refuge staff.

“Christmas seems to be that time when families show up to offer kindness. And that’s really what it’s about.”

She encouraged people to “share gifts and kindness” with other services needing support including Shakti Ethnic Women’s Support Group, Under the Stars, Tauranga Living Without Violence and homeless shelters.