Contact Energy (‘Contact’) is incredibly proud to announce it is partnering with the National Collective of Independent Women’s Refuges (‘Women’s Refuge’) for a two-and-a-half-year sponsorship deal.

Contact believes it's good to be home and kiwi homes should be warm, connected and most importantly safe. This is not the reality for all kiwi whānau and this newly formed partnership with Women’s Refuge is in recognition of the responsibly Contact has towards building a better Aotearoa New Zealand for all New Zealanders.

Contact has worked with Women’s Refuge since 2020 on several initiatives including donations of money and energy, support of the successful Safe-Night-a-thon campaign in 2021 and adding the incredibly important Shielded functionality on its website.

Contact CEO Mike Fuge said the business is focused on putting people at the heart of every decision as it delivers on its promise to build a better future for Aotearoa.

“Businesses have a moral responsibility to look after our communities, and what better way than to support Women’s Refuge with their important mahi across Aotearoa. We have a huge respect for the important, tough and sometimes gritty work the Women's Refuge teams across the country do and are looking forward to doing more together over the next few years as part of our new partnership.

This partnership is Contact making good on our promise to deliver new social initiatives that will help ensure every New Zealander, including our most vulnerable have a better home life.”

National Collective of Independent Women’s Refuges CEO Dr Ang Jury said it has been incredible to see a corporate like Contact begin to pull its weight to help deliver better outcomes for vulnerable kiwis.

“We have been amazed by the similarity in the values between our two organisations as we have worked through forming this partnership. Contact is enabling us to get on and deliver our core services by providing funding for basic necessities like electricity.

Together we will be keeping more women and children needing to leave family violence, warm, safe and dry and we are looking forward to the continued mahi we will be doing together.”

Contact is starting the partnership with Women’s Refuge by providing free electricity to 40 affiliated refuges and 40 safe houses across the country.

Contact is also helping out with the brand-new fundraiser The Great Night In. On 17 July, Women’s Refuge is asking the entire nation to settle in and get comfy for a great cause - helping women and their children escape family violence. People are being encouraged to gift a Safe Night ($20) and enjoy a Great Night In. And Contact is matching every Safe Night donated dollar-for-dollar up to $100,000!

To find out more, visit https://safenight.nz/pages/great-night-in

Media enquiries:

Leah Chamberlin-Gunn 
leah.chamberlin-gunn@contactenergy.co.nz 
Ph +64 212277991