Women's shelters are providing lifesaving services as Australia struggles through the grips of a domestic violence crisis. But many are forced to turn women away almost every day because they don't have the funding to keep up with demand. In western Sydney, a shelter designed to help migrant women relies solely on donations.
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00:00 It looks like a regular suburban home in Western Sydney, but this is Her House, a safe space
00:08 for migrant women fleeing domestic violence.
00:11 My husband was controlling, so I didn't do a job.
00:16 I didn't know anything about Australia, even language problem.
00:20 Over eight years, Her House has taken in 75 women and their children.
00:25 They are most vulnerable because the spouses or the husbands or partners who brought them
00:29 here threatened them that they would revoke their visas.
00:33 And so most of the time that's when they do not want to go and report.
00:39 They don't know what to do.
00:40 It's a new country.
00:41 While the shelter receives referrals from government agencies, it doesn't receive the
00:45 government funding to take them on.
00:48 We do rely on fundraisers, which we do once in a year.
00:53 Then we have got a generous donors.
00:57 Like thousands of women's shelters across the country, the money at Her House only goes
01:01 so far.
01:03 Staff say they're still forced to turn five or six women away every week.
01:08 One of the issues is we do see a lot of this is the state's responsibility, this is the
01:12 federal responsibility.
01:14 Actually it's everyone's responsibility to make that investment.
01:16 When I left my home, I wasn't able to do anything.
01:20 I was so shattered.
01:21 I was like, I'm useless.
01:24 But when I came here I had the courage to do something in my life.
01:28 Already this year, 28 women have died allegedly at the hands of men.
01:33 It's safe houses like this one, protecting as many as they can.
01:37 [BLANK_AUDIO]