Family violence: Women's Refuge launches undercover site for abuse victims

New Zealand has the worst rate of family and intimate-partner violence in the developed world and over the Christmas and New Year period the number of incidents spikes dramatically. Less than 20 per cent of incidents are reported to the police - so what we know of what we know of family violence in our community over the festive season is barely the tip of the iceberg. Today we have a simple message - every Kiwi has a right to a safe, fear free and happy holiday. We are revisiting our campaign We're Better Than This, and over the next few days we want to raise awareness, educate, and give an insight into the victims and perpetrators. We want to encourage victims to have the strength to speak out, and abusers the courage to change their behaviour.

A new site allowing women to secretly access the Women's Refuge website without alerting offenders has been launched.

Women's Refuge has developed the website www.shielded.co.nz which allows victims of domestic support to access key information about escaping abusive relationships via other company websites such as ASB, The Warehouse, Sorted, Z Energy and Saatchi & Saatchi.

Women's Refuge has worked with communications and advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi over 18 months to develop the shielded site so that abusers who might be monitoring their victims through their browser history will not know they have been reaching out to the site.

The Shielded site is an expandable iFrame and holds critical information for victims including how to ask for help, keep themselves safe or plan a future without violence. The site never appears in a user's browser.

Shielded appears as an icon on a partner's website - like a badge of support for those suffering from domestic abuse.

When a victim clicks on it, a small window overlay containing the site will appear.

It site can then be closed just as easily - without affecting activity on the host site.

Women's Refuge chief executive Dr Ang Jury said the launch of the site was timely due to the spike in family violence during the Christmas break.

Between 15 December and 15 January 6000 women and children were helped by the Women's Refuge.

"The most dangerous time in a relationship in when a victim is planning on leaving, or immediately after they've left so being able to assist people to do this discreetly and safely will mean more people can access help and information."

The aim is for every website in New Zealand to have the Shielded site as it will be even safer for victims of abuse to seek help.

If you're in danger NOW:

• Phone the police on 111 or ask neighbours of friends to ring for you
• Run outside and head for where there are other people
• Scream for help so that your neighbours can hear you
• Take the children with you
• Don't stop to get anything else
• If you are being abused, remember it's not your fault. Violence is never okay

Where to go for help or more information:

• Women's Refuge: Free national crisis line operates 24/7 - 0800 REFUGE or 0800 733 843 www.womensrefuge.org.nz
• Shine, free national helpline 9am- 11pm every day - 0508 744 633 www.2shine.org.nz
• It's Not Ok: Information line 0800 456 450 www.areyouok.org.nz
• Shakti: Providing specialist cultural services for African, Asian and Middle Eastern women and their children. Crisis line 24/7 0800 742 584
• Ministry of Justice: www.justice.govt.nz/family-justice/domestic-violence
• National Network of Stopping Violence: www.nnsvs.org.nz
• White Ribbon: Aiming to eliminate men's violence towards women, focusing this year on sexual violence and the issue of consent. www.whiteribbon.org.nz

How to hide your visit

If you are reading this information on the Herald website and you're worried that someone using the same computer will find out what you've been looking at, you can follow the steps at the link here to hide your visit. Each of the websites above also have a section that outlines this process.

Donate this Christmas

Shakti
Shine
White Ribbon
Women's Refuge