KEY POINTS:
Art lovers who paid nearly $740,000 for sculptures are funding parcels of new clothes, toys and toiletries for each of the 4000 children who will be taken to refuges in the next year.
The Takapuna waterfront show in November produced a profit of $300,000 for the National Collective of Independent Women's Refuges, up from $200,000 from the previous show in 2004.
Collective manager Heather Henare said every child would get a T-shirt, pants, pyjamas, socks, underwear, a toothbrush, a hair brush, a book and a soft toy, and for school-aged children a school bag, water bottle, exercise book and pencils.
"Some years ago there was a report on children in care where the children complained about never having anything of their own, so that's where the idea came from," she said.
"We get an enormous amount of second-hand goods but being able to give them new stuff that is theirs just means that there is something special there.
"For a 6- or 7-year-old child going to school, wouldn't it be nice to go in new clothes with a new backpack to a new school on Monday despite the traumatic weekend they have just had?"
National Party leader John Key and North Shore MPs Wayne Mapp and Ann Hartley attended the presentation of a $300,000 cheque to the collective in Auckland this week.
Ms Henare said last year that the collective's 39 refuges needed $16 million a year to provide court advocacy and support to victims as well as safe houses, but they received only $5.5 million from Child, Youth and Family Services.
The rest of their costs were met by donations and volunteer time.
The collective has asked for "a substantial increase" in this year's Budget. Ms Henare expects to hear the outcome next month.
