Crisis calls for refuge more than double

Tauranga Women's Refuge manager Angie Warren-Clarke and boxes of donated toys from Logical Toys. She has been able to use some of the toys for the refuge but has also donated on to other organisations in need. Photo / Ruth Keber

The number of women making crisis calls to Tauranga Women's Refuge has increased 65 per cent this year.

Every month about 15 of those calls require refuge staff to take immediate action to remove women and children from threatening situations.

In the 2013 to 2014 financial year, 780 crisis calls were made to the refuge. As at March 31 this year, three-quarters of the way through this financial year, it had received 1276 calls.

"We get calls from women who say, 'I've got two minutes. I need to meet you. I need to get out of the house and I will be here' - these are the most extreme," Tauranga Women's Refuge manager Angie Warren-Clarke told the Bay of Plenty Times.

Staff would take phone calls from all over the Western Bay of Plenty that would result in pick-ups in places such as Katikati and Te Puke in the middle of the night, she said.

The refuge also took referrals from Tauranga Hospital and Tauranga police, and worked with 203 clients and their children living in the community.

Those clients were the highest risk with situations including throttling, kidnappings, sexual assault, weapons and stalking.

In the 2013 to 2014 financial year the refuge housed 171 women and children temporarily at its safe house. This year it had already sheltered 122 clients, and 66 of those were children, she said.

"Then you have the 'He's at work right now, so I am safe to talk, but this is my situation' calls, where we do an immediate safety plan for the women."

Mrs Warren-Clarke said women only used the safe house as a last resort. Many of the clients were in a horrific state when they arrived, she said.

"You will see them physically injured. You will see bruising or cuts. You will see them terrified, crying, most of them are in shock or shaking. Their children are silent and terrified.

"Honestly, they just grab their gear, stuff it in the car and huddle down.

"When we get to the safe house, you give them a cup of tea and the tears come at that point if they haven't already.

"Some women are so terrified they are having trouble breathing. They are trying to stay calm for their children but they are just absolutely terrified and frightened that he's followed them or he's going to find them."

Mrs Warren-Clarke said the worst thing she saw in her work was the dissociation in the children.

"They are so traumatised they are not present.

"Some of the mums do their very best at that time of crisis to care and nurture their children but they are just in a different place. They have retreated inside themselves to survive what they have just seen."

Seeing the bruised, battered bodies of the women and children was heartbreaking, she said.

Mrs Warren-Clarke said the refuge responded to every call staff received. Yet of the 1276 calls they had received this year they had been funded for only 360 calls.

They had placed 122 women and children in their safe house this year.

Last year they housed 171 in their safe house.

The refuge was funded for only 107 a year.

Although working at the refuge could be a struggle, Mrs Warren-Clarke said her work was rewarding.

"Every woman and child who comes through the refuge leaves restored, empowered and safer."

Help

The Tauranga Women's Refuge has secured a one-year lease for its opportunity shop, Up Cycle. The shop was recently able to donate about 30 boxes of clothing to Kerri Tilby-Price's container to help the people of Vanuatu after Cyclone Pam. The refuge has also recently received a donation of toys from Logical Toys, and it has gone on to donate the
excess to the Tauranga Hospital's children's ward, Homes of Hope and Shakti Women's Refuge.