Extra pressure on women's refuge

Tauranga Women's Refuge manager Angela Warren-Clark with Elijah Paama, 16, from Youth from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saint in Mount Maunganui, and Mitre 10 Mega front end supervisor Kristy Gray. Photo / George Novak

With only two days until Christmas the Tauranga Women's Refuge team haven't stopped work.

Today they will deliver food parcels and presents to 22 Bay families while also still taking calls from women in crisis and accepting them into their safe house - summer is one of the busiest times of year.

This year the Tauranga Women's Refuge answered 1872 crisis calls, and housed 158 women and children in their safe house.

It was only paid to answer 360 of those calls which provide support, advice and advocacy for women in need. The organisation was paid $21.25 an hour by the government to cover all the staff costs. Yet its two full time and six part-time workers soldiered on.

As well as providing shelter for women and taking crisis calls, they also delivered 42 12-week programmes for children who had witnessed domestic violence. They were only paid for 12.

Tauranga Women's Refuge manager Angela Warren-Clark said they continued with their work through the holiday season as Christmas was a hard time for families who were struggling to live safely.

"Many mums are on their own parenting because their partners have continued to use violence. The sad truth is Christmas brings the added burden of visitation and supervised access going wrong and children not being returned home safely.

"Our children deserve to be safe - there is help out there for dads who want to be good fathers by learning to live without using violence. Being a good father means treating the mother of your children with respect and not terrifying or abusing her or the children."

Mrs Warren-Clark said 2015 had been busier than ever.

Families were increasingly staying in their homes more than entering the safe house because of interventions put in place by the police and other services that support families to access legal and social remedies, she said.

But women would still seek the safety of the refuge during the next few days.

Mrs Warren-Clark said paying a liveable wage to her staff was the biggest cost for the refuge.

They had not had a baseline pay increase for nine years, she said.

"That's why I have to fundraise. Either we don't deliver or we continue to operate like this - these women need us."

Ways to help

* If you can assist the refuge with any of the below items please phone (07) 541 1910 to enquire about a drop-off address.

* Needed: Canned food, cereals, frozen meat and vegetables, disposable babies nappies (all ages), cleaning products and cash.