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Who We Are
Shakti Woman’s Refuge Trust formerly known as the Shakti Community Council has its origins in The Shakti Asian Women’s Support Group founded by Farida Sultana and 7 other ethnic women in Auckland in 1995. The support group was set up by ethnic women for ethnic women to overcome the barriers that come with migration and the intergenerational bonds of cultural oppression. Besides enrolling themselves in Life Skills programmes and learning to become self-reliant, these women sought to challenge the cultural acceptance of Domestic Violence within their communities, promote greater gender equity and bring about social change.
Over 23 years, the Support Group has grown from the confines of one tiny room to a national umbrella organisation with 8 centres and 5 refuges covering Central, West and South Auckland, North Island Central and South Island. Shakti’s services include a 24-hour domestic violence intervention service for women and other social services for immigrant families. Every year, Shakti caters to thousands of families in New Zealand, from several ethnic groups including Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Malay, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Burmese, Korean, Indian, Fiji Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Iranian, Iraqi and African. Shakti’s forte has been in providing culturally-sensitive services, by ethnic people for ethnic people of Asian, African and Middle Eastern origins.
Since its inception, women from these communities have worked tirelessly to create an environment that was empowering for women. They worked to create an environment where women could escape domestic violence and be supported in a non-judgmental way, strengthening them to build new future for themselves and their children.
Shakti’s model has worked and has been tested and tried over the years. As a natural extension to the work we do in New Zealand, the women felt that they needed to take the model to their home countries.
In 2008 Shakti launched Project Women Against Violence and began building transnational relationships with NGOs. Scoping was done in Japan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Nepal, Bangladesh and India as well as prominent Western countries of migration such as the USA.
The main activities involved capacity-building in partnership with local NGOs towards empowerment, advocating for suitable legislation for women and enabling establishment of refuge services.
As an organisation we intend to work within Asian, African and Middle Eastern countries.
