Two Christchurch Girls' High School students joined the team at Avonhead Mall over the weekend, collecting alongside Ilam MP Sarah Pallet as part of the charity’s annual appeal.
"It is really sad that Battered Women Christchurch is needed, that all of our refuges are needed, but obviously we are going to be working as hard as we can to make sure that’s not the case in the future," Pallet said.
Sarah Malin, who is a fundraiser for the trust, says one in three women are impacted by family violence.
But she believes the actual figures could be higher.
"It's estimated 75 per cent of cases aren't reported," Malin said.
"If you’re in an unsafe situation please phone the 0800 refuge number," she said.
Christchurch Girls' High pupils Livi Russell and Harper Connolly were among the charity’s volunteers, and have started a small business in support.
The pair developed their own coffee blend alongside Sydenham business, Prima Roastery, which they’re selling to help raise money.
"We have created a business called CoCaffe which sells coffee, with a portion of the profits going towards Battered Women’s Trust," Harper said.
Livi said: "We’re hoping to raise more funds and awareness of the trust by selling bags of coffee through our social media pages and at Riverside Market."
The pair began the project after seeing the statistics around family violence.
They describe the current situation as 'horrible' and say they wanted to do something about it.
July is national Women's Refuge Awareness Month, but the Cocaffe team plan to sell their coffee to raise funds for the Battered Women’s Trust through to October.
The Avonhead Mall weekend stall raised more than $900, with the organisation hoping to raise more than $7000 this month to help keep the service afloat.
