Despite the growing need for culturally appropriate support for victims of domestic violence, Wellington's one-of-a-kind family violence refuge, offering support and advocacy to Asian, African and Middle-Eastern women, faces closure after its funding was denied by the Government early this month.Shakti Wellington Refuge was opened in 2014 after the murders of two migrant women, Sarwan Lata Singh and Mei Fan. Last year the refuge supported more than 350 women, including 200 police referrals. A campaign has been launched to petition the government for funding.The theme of International Women's Day this week in New Zealand is "Violence against Women: An Equality and Human Rights Violation". We did see some political progress on domestic violence issues with Green MP Jan Logie's Domestic Violence Victim's Protection Bill passing its first reading in parliament on Wednesday with unanimous support. The bill would give abuse victims an entitlement to 10 days paid leave. Meanwhile Shakti Wellington Refuge is need of $60,000 to survive and receiving more calls than ever before.So what's going on? VICE spoke to Wendy Vyas of Shakti to find out more about the refuge's plight and how migrant women's needs differ from the mainstream.VICE: Hi Wendy. Can you tell me how Shakti come into about?
Wendy Vyas: Shakti had a very humble beginning—in a garage with eight women who realised that there was no support for Asian, African, and Middle Eastern women who needs culturally specialist service and support. They found that a huge issue in the community was domestic violence and evolved into a domestic violence intervention agency.Have you got a personal story you'd be willing to share with us about your own journey with domestic violence?
I was blessed enough to have received Shakti's support at my time of need. That came after I was serviced by a mainstream refuge and almost died at the hands of my now ex-husband. Whilst I respect and acknowledge the work that the main stream refuge had done for me, I also realised that they were not able to understand my culture. Shakti provided me with the cultural understanding that abuse is not okay and I don't have to be in a relationship because my community will ostracise me.What are the first things Shakti do when a woman makes contact with the service?
Shakti offers an end to end, holistic, wrap-around culturally competent services to Asian, African, and Middle Eastern women and children. We have a culturally specialist 24/7 national Crisisline that does initial assessment. After the assessment, if they are of high risk—which means they are in immediate risk of their life—then we offer them our culturally specialist refuge. We arrange the pickup and take them to the safe place where they are provided support ranging from accommodation, legal assistance, Housing NZ assistance, WINZ support, counselling support, immigration support.Why is domestic violence towards immigrant women a problem and how does it differ from non-migrant women facing similar issues?
Immigrant women face challenges that non-migrant women sometimes don't. Patriarchy is cross-cultural but for most immigrant women from Asian, African, and Middle Eastern countries, patriarchy can manifest differently. Therefore, it is very important that their culture is taken into context when one is dealing with them. They not only suffer physical and emotional violence as non-migrant women but they also suffer from issues such as FGM, forced marriage, honour-based violence, dowry abuse, and immigration abuse. It makes it more difficult if they do not speak English fluently, haven't been allowed to work or if they don't have any social connections in the community.I understand Shakti is up against some big hurdles, what are they?
The biggest hurdle is that under the current government, their "one size fits all" approach doesn't work for migrant and refugee women. Right now, the government's primary focus is prevention and helping perpetrators to change, which is really important, but that should not take away from support for women and children who are domestic violence survivors. They still need to be safe with their children and women's refuges is still very important for our women. Many of these migrant women who have no extended family members, the only safe option is going to the women's refuge, many of them have no other alternative. The stigma of family violence prevents them from seeking help from their friends. The government doesn't understand specific cultural needs of women of our community.The strong notions of shame and honour in our communities make women and children quite vulnerable when they try to escape a violent relationship. Often women are under immense pressure by their own families and communities to stay in the abusive relations. This does not only leave women without any family support instead they are likely to face family violence when they leave the relationship as their actions are deemed bringing shame for their families and communities. In this context Shakti's refuge provides women and children a safe place to stay. No refuge means women have to live with their abusers where they are subjected to ongoing violence. Even if the abuser gets removed from the house, many of our women live with their in-laws, it is still his house and the abuse can still continue by the in-laws.What will happen if Shakti doesn't get funding from Ministry of Social Development for the Wellington refuge?
The worst case scenario would be more women would be in the same situation as two of our sisters who lost their lives. For us it would be morally and ethically inappropriate to close the refuge as we know that scores of vulnerable women are dependent on our services. However, we are already stretched to the max and we are at a point where our backs are broken, and we honestly do not know where to from here? We are unable to fathom the heartless government stance given the enormous support that we received and still do from statutory bodies including the police and many other government and non-government agencies.Follow Holly on Twitter.
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Wendy Vyas: Shakti had a very humble beginning—in a garage with eight women who realised that there was no support for Asian, African, and Middle Eastern women who needs culturally specialist service and support. They found that a huge issue in the community was domestic violence and evolved into a domestic violence intervention agency.Have you got a personal story you'd be willing to share with us about your own journey with domestic violence?
I was blessed enough to have received Shakti's support at my time of need. That came after I was serviced by a mainstream refuge and almost died at the hands of my now ex-husband. Whilst I respect and acknowledge the work that the main stream refuge had done for me, I also realised that they were not able to understand my culture. Shakti provided me with the cultural understanding that abuse is not okay and I don't have to be in a relationship because my community will ostracise me.
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Shakti offers an end to end, holistic, wrap-around culturally competent services to Asian, African, and Middle Eastern women and children. We have a culturally specialist 24/7 national Crisisline that does initial assessment. After the assessment, if they are of high risk—which means they are in immediate risk of their life—then we offer them our culturally specialist refuge. We arrange the pickup and take them to the safe place where they are provided support ranging from accommodation, legal assistance, Housing NZ assistance, WINZ support, counselling support, immigration support.Why is domestic violence towards immigrant women a problem and how does it differ from non-migrant women facing similar issues?
Immigrant women face challenges that non-migrant women sometimes don't. Patriarchy is cross-cultural but for most immigrant women from Asian, African, and Middle Eastern countries, patriarchy can manifest differently. Therefore, it is very important that their culture is taken into context when one is dealing with them. They not only suffer physical and emotional violence as non-migrant women but they also suffer from issues such as FGM, forced marriage, honour-based violence, dowry abuse, and immigration abuse. It makes it more difficult if they do not speak English fluently, haven't been allowed to work or if they don't have any social connections in the community.I understand Shakti is up against some big hurdles, what are they?
The biggest hurdle is that under the current government, their "one size fits all" approach doesn't work for migrant and refugee women. Right now, the government's primary focus is prevention and helping perpetrators to change, which is really important, but that should not take away from support for women and children who are domestic violence survivors. They still need to be safe with their children and women's refuges is still very important for our women. Many of these migrant women who have no extended family members, the only safe option is going to the women's refuge, many of them have no other alternative. The stigma of family violence prevents them from seeking help from their friends. The government doesn't understand specific cultural needs of women of our community.The strong notions of shame and honour in our communities make women and children quite vulnerable when they try to escape a violent relationship. Often women are under immense pressure by their own families and communities to stay in the abusive relations. This does not only leave women without any family support instead they are likely to face family violence when they leave the relationship as their actions are deemed bringing shame for their families and communities. In this context Shakti's refuge provides women and children a safe place to stay. No refuge means women have to live with their abusers where they are subjected to ongoing violence. Even if the abuser gets removed from the house, many of our women live with their in-laws, it is still his house and the abuse can still continue by the in-laws.What will happen if Shakti doesn't get funding from Ministry of Social Development for the Wellington refuge?
The worst case scenario would be more women would be in the same situation as two of our sisters who lost their lives. For us it would be morally and ethically inappropriate to close the refuge as we know that scores of vulnerable women are dependent on our services. However, we are already stretched to the max and we are at a point where our backs are broken, and we honestly do not know where to from here? We are unable to fathom the heartless government stance given the enormous support that we received and still do from statutory bodies including the police and many other government and non-government agencies.Follow Holly on Twitter.