Congratulations to Global Women member Annah Stretton MNZM, who was last week announced as the winner of the EY Social Entrepreneur Of The Year Award, presented by ASB, as recognition for her work with RAW (Reclaim Another Woman). She joins a list of prestigious New Zealanders to win the award for contributions to society, including Dame Rosie Horton, Sir Ray Avery and Lady Adrianne Stewart.
RAW is an initiative launched two years ago which matches mentors with women who have been victims of domestic violence. The award also recognised Stretton’s other charitable work through the Stretton Foundation.
Stretton told Stuff.co.nz it was “wonderful” to be acknowledged in the area of social entrepreneurship.
“It is a lot more important than so many of the other business awards that have been attached to me over the years, in that this one truly acknowledges the difference that I have made and will continue to make to the social fabric of New Zealand society … We are working to get life change through education and 360 degree wrap-around support for recidivist incarcerated women. We are bringing them back into mainstream and getting the intergenerational change for this submerged demographic – as a country we all talk about wanting this, but have failed to work out how to achieve it … To change the intergenerational outcomes and advance the children of the next generation, we had to get to the mothers. The women that we work with through RAW (the mothers) will be the change agents we all so desperately seek. We are breaking the cycle.”
Stretton is looking to create a similar cause for men in 2016, as well as replicate the RAW model overseas. Want to help the cause?
Donate unwanted household items
RAW is looking for household items. In particular, they need double and queen beds (with bedding and linen), lawnmowers, gardening tools, trestle tables and BBQs to establish their next incubator home. On release from prison, RAW women are placed in incubator homes which house up to four women including one house mother (usually a RAW women that has been out for more than four months). These homes have been secured and rented by RAW in the Hamilton area. This geographic separation from their old world is all part of the total focus on establishing the behaviour change and educational pathways required to successfully reintegrate these women back into mainstream living without disruption. RAW aims to have nine homes up and running in the Hamilton area by the end of 2016.
If you have unwanted household items, please contact Rebecca at Rebecca@raw.org.nz – they can organise for these items to be picked up from your home.