A Wellington organisation that helps women and children experiencing domestic violence is lobbying the Government to "survive", delivering a petition with over 5400 signatures to Parliament asking for support.
Youth Project Coordinator of Shakti Mengzhu Fu said said they have "lobbied persistently with MPs and the Ministry of Social Development for our Shakti Wellington Refuge".
"Without contracted government funding, Shakti Wellington does not have a sense of financial stability or security, it means our advocacy efforts are funneled into making sure there can be some sustainability for the services in Wellington until the day we eliminate domestic violence," she said.
Shakti is an organisation that supports Asian, Middle Eastern and African women, youth and children experiencing domestic violence, with Shakti Wellington helping about 300 women and 200 children a year.
"The types of violence we deal with are often quite different to the mainstream, such as dowry abuse, honour-based violence and forced and underage marriage," she said.
Ms Fu said Shakti Wellington is short $30,000 for the financial year, "which is why we have had to resort to crowdfunding from the community to keep the services running".
Marama Edwards of the Ministry of Social Development said Shaki had been supported for a number of years - however, the "decisions they make in terms of how they allocated funding is an operational matter for Shakti".
"We support the services Shakti provide and were pleased to be able to offer them a 30 per cent funding boost this year, which was an additional $122,000.
"This is one of the biggest injections they've had in recent times and was an opportunity for them to look at how they may want to configure some of their services around the country, including flexibility around funding for their Wellington refuge," she said.
Ms Fu said while they were grateful for the increase in the family violence sector, what Wellington Shakti were hoping for was a baseline contracted annual funding.
She said the 30 per cent increase was offered based on Shakti's existing services in Tauranga, Auckland and Christchurch.
"Wellington has never received contracted funding. In some of the options they offered us was for Shakti Wellington to be included in the contract, but there was no additional funding for Shakti Wellington refuge."
"The expectation was that the money would come from the 30 per cent increase to our other services. This was not an option we were prepared to take given the lack of increase in funding for 10 years for existing services and we did not want to compromise our other services."
Ms Fu hoped the Government could intervene "to help Shakti Wellington refuge survive".
Shakti Wellington ran a campaign in the lead up to Christmas. It raised $11,000.
SHARE ME