Local collection for Chch women's refuges

Thanks, Kate, for agreeing to let me post this here:

I would like to take up a local collection of much-needed goods, to be donated to the Chch women's refuge centres, which are fill to capacity in large part due extreme stress caused by the earthquakes, and everything that's happened in the wake of the quakes.

Please read about it here, for a list of the things most required:
www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/christchu...-refuges-overflowing

I would like to set up a collection point at our place in Oxford, and a secondary collection spot in Rangiora or Woodend, TBA, and I will take it all in to their main drop-off point in Chch.

Please PM me if you have anything you can donate.

Well done Andrea. I'll PM you. I found some of the comments following the article in the link disturbing! Thankfully there are still compassionate people like yourself who act rather than judge.

BUMP -- so far, only Seaside's donation, part of which I have already collected. Anyone else?

I read what they need most - phone cards. Hmmm - not a request that makes people compassionate.

People need to stop and think about the situations these women and their children find themselves in, then.

Andrea - I have had experience of trying to donate to a Woman's Refuge in South Auckland and without telling the whole story, would never do that again. I was just appalled at the lazy ghastly women in this "refuge" that had children out of school and not one of them got out of their chair.

It was send the ten year old out to get all the clothes I was donating (in bags) and not even this child had the education or nouce to say thank you for caring. Never again for me - women's refuge is a scam up here as far as I am concerned.

I celebrate your passion and your desire to do the right thing and maybe in your area it is important and necessary but I can think of so many other organisations who will ensure that it will get to the recipients who need your help - and admit to having being burnt by one Womans Refuge will never go there again. Sorry

Simkin;374704 wrote: I read what they need most - phone cards. Hmmm - not a request that makes people compassionate.

The way I read that was in the context of the date of the article (six days after 13 June) implying the Women's Refuge landlines were down and they were relying on cellphones to contact people. That won't be the case by now, but women running away from bad situations leaving most of their stuff behind (and let's face it, many people are at breaking point emotionally after the 13 June quakes) still need warm clothes, boots and food.

I trust Andrea to figure out whether help is needed when she visits the refuge.

Please remember that a person who has been beaten and cowed into submission, like many of these women have, will not interact as a social person, and could well appear lazy etc. They need time to learn to trust and to interact. They commonly have been beaten for reacting in a friendly way, as this is a means to control them by isolating them. Refuges take people in at their most desperate and help them to stand on their feet again.

Exactly, HS. They are not behaving in a way that most people would recognise as 'normal or 'acceptable' social behaviour.