Just keep swimming FOR SHINE - Maddie's Auckland Harbour Bridge ocean swim

Hi everyone,

1 in 3 women will experience physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime from a partner in NZ (NZFVC, 2017). Up to 76% of family violence cases are NOT reported to the police. I would like to shine a light on the domestic violence issue in New Zealand by swimming for SHINE; an organisation which stands for Safer Homes in New Zealand Everyday. SHINE helps thousands of adults, children and families each year in NZ who are victims of domestic abuse as well as the perpetrators to change their behaviours.

I have created this page as I am undertaking a 2km double crossing (there and back) ocean swim underneath the length of the Auckland Harbour Bridge on Saturday the 6th of April, 2019. I decided in late 2018 that I wanted to do something to support NZ families to get safe and stay safe. I realised family violence as a public health issue particularly in my studies about it in 2018, in my third year of the Bachelor of health sciences at UoA. So I thought, why not step out of my comfort zone and do an ocean swim for SHINE in 2019.

Swimming has come naturally to me from a young age but I have not done swimming training for the past three years.

Therefore, I am not only going to 'swim the bridge' but I am going to 'just keep swimming FOR SHINE'.

For every $250 I raise, I can change the life of a family by covering the cost of an advocate's urgent callout to a family after an arrest plus a follow up first home visit by a KIDshine advocate who specifically supports children exposed to domestic abuse.

Any donation would be greatly appreciated and I hope you can come and support me do my first ocean swim from a viewing point or at the finish line!

Check out these links

http://www.2shine.org.nz/

https://oceanswim.co.nz/events/swim-the-bridge-auckland/

https://nzfvc.org.nz/sites/nzfvc.org.nz/files/Data-summaries-snapshot-2017.pdf

Thanks for your support

~ Madeleine