Inaugural White Ribbon Awards Celebrated in Auckland

More than 250 people including guest speakers, Hon Amy Adams Minister of Justice, Mai Chen of Chen Palmer, Inspector Marshall from the New Zealand Police and Liz Thomas from the Children's Action Team attended the first White Ribbon Dinner and Awards last night in Auckland.

White Ribbon Ambassador George Ngatai and organiser Raewyn Bhana said it was a great night to hear great speakers and then acknowledge the many paid and unpaid workers who support Whanau and individuals who live with Domestic Violence.

There were more than 19 nominations and finalists who competed in 3 Categories.

Category 1
The Individual who makes a difference to reducing Domestic Violence in the Community
Category 2
The Individual who makes a difference to reducing Domestic Violence within their organisation
Category 3
An Organisation/Group who makes a difference in reducing Domestic Violence

Judges for these awards included Inspector Joe Tipene from Auckland District Police, Alison Thom Regional Manager for Child Youth and Family, Dr Lorna Dyall Co-Chair of Safer Aotearoa Family Violence Prevention Network (SAFVPN) and Ric Odom Chair of White Ribbon Trust.

Domestic Violence numbers are high in NZ - One in three women experience psychological or physical abuse from their partners in their lifetime1.

On average 14 women, six men and 10 children are killed by a member of their family every year.

Police are called to around 200 domestic violence situations a day – that’s one every seven minutes on average.

Police estimate only 18% of domestic violence incidents are reported.

At least 74,785 children and young people aged under 17 were present at domestic violence situations attended by police.

84% of those arrested for domestic violence are men; 16% are women.

The economic cost of domestic violence was estimated at $1.2 to $5.8 billion per year by economist Suzanne Snively in 19962. In today’s figures, that would be up to $8 billion.

In the 2009/10 year there were 3,867 domestic violence cases in the Family Court which each involved at least one child.

Acknowledgment must go to the winners who time and again work within our community

The winner of Category 1 presented by The Minister of Justice Amy Adams went to:
Caine Warren from the ManUp Programme
The winner of Category 2 presented by Judge Fraser from Auckland Diistrict Court went to:
Valentine Tauamiti from The Parenting Place
The winner of Category 3 presented by Louisa Wall MP went to:
FVIRS -Family Violence Interagency Response Service - NZ Police Manukau East

Enquiries have already begun for next years dinner and awards and the organisers from the Peace Foundation, Serco, Safer Aotearoa Family Violence Prevention Network and The Whanau Ora Community Clinic were pleased with the outcome.

This event is one of many which supports the White Ribbon Campaign this week in Auckland. It also prepares Auckland for the White Ribbon March down Queen Street this Wednesday starting at 11am at Britomart.

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