Rural Women New Zealand wishes everyone a safe and happy holiday season!

Our Three Wishes for Christmas

Give family violence a permanent holiday

This year Rural Women® ran a very successful awareness campaign, under the umbrella of ‘It’s OK to Ask for Help’, on how to stay safe in the home and where to go for help.

We’ll continue this in 2015 with training and workshops equipping people with the knowledge to build safer families and communities, and giving more people the skills to help take care of families in crisis.

36.5% of victims of family violence reported a pet or farm animal had been injured or killed in a family violence situation. In 2015 we will work the Police, regional councils and communities on ways to resource protected or safe environments for pets and stock at risk of harm in a family violence situation.

Women’s Refuge operates a 24 hour crisis helpline service – 0800 733843 every day of the year. The crime prevention organisation, Crimestoppers (0800 555 111), also guarantees caller anonymity.

Giving for Good

Rural Women® members generously give their time and energy to support and build great communities. In 2014 we held leadership courses, ran awards showcasing rural talent, gave out bursaries and scholarships and led national and local projects and campaigns. On the charitable front, highlights this year have included giving 4,000 books to Solomon Islands schools, partnering with Farmlands to give out eleven gardening grants to rural schools, as well as five technology grants to rural schools in conjunction with HP New Zealand. Our second wish is that we continue even more of this work with gusto in 2015!

Keeping our Children Safe

Our third wish for Christmas is that 2015 will be the year when our children will be safe going to school, on the farm, at the beach and the local pool.

Child drowning is silent and fast. It is one of the major causes of injury-related death to children in New Zealand, Each year, on average 37 children are hospitalised following a near drowning event. (Safekids). Even more vigilance is needed in rural areas with exposed water hazards. Keep gates closed and supervise children at all times around water.

Make sure children wash their hands thoroughly after playing with animals to avoid E-coli and leptospirosis, both diseases that can be passed from animals to humans. Rural Women has been part of the Massey FLAG project, which has resulted in an excellent set of seven short videos on all you need to know about lepto.

We also hope 2015 will be the year when flashing and illuminated 20K signs are approved for use on school buses by the NZ Transport Agency, following the very positive outcomes of a trial of the signs in Ashburton last year supported by Rural Women New Zealand and Pearsons Coachlines.

© Scoop Media