The Diplomatic Spouse Association (DSA) in Wellington is an Association comprising of all the diplomatic spouses here in Wellington. Members pay a subscription of 100NZ Dollars to be part of the group. This group meets on a monthly basis to share coffee mornings. There is a committee that runs the Association and organize meetings and excursions to various interesting sites and museum and numerous other activities. They help to bring in speakers into DSA’s morning coffee gatherings.

March 2025 morning coffee was hosted by Dion (he’s the guy wearing light blue, long hand sleeve shirt and dark blue vest) the Spouse of the Ambassador for Ireland. Spread out on the table before the group are the donations that each member came with that morning. During this coffee morning each spouse came with a shopping bag loaded with goodies which was donated the Women’s refuge team who came to give a talk to our group on how they work to look after abused women in Aotearoa.

A brief information about Women’s Refuge.

The women’s Refuge was formed more than 40 years ago as a direct response to the harm being caused to women and children as the result of abuse by violent husbands and partners. It is a movement driven by a group of passionate and committed New Zealanders who provide safe and protected homes for abused women and children. What they do is they provide homes temporarily and ensure that the house the victims live in have an alarm to alert the police if they feel they are being threatened. When asked what the response time is, they responded that it is usually 5-10 minutes. Women and their children that are placed in these settlements are usually taken through a procedure on what to do in the event of situations which are threatening to them. They help accommodate the victim for a month and when the clients feel that they are safe then they are released back into society to live their normal lives.