About Wahine Toa Rising
Wahine Toa Rising is on a mission to make sure women and children from our vulnerable communities are put first.
In 2020, Amazing Warrior Women from the sex trade in New Zealand, and an amazing group of courageous women came together because they saw an urgent need for womens and childrens voices to be heard and Wahine Toa Rising was born.
Wahine Toa Rising is a grassroots and survivor-led organisation founded by Maori prostitution survivor Ally Marie Diamond. This non-profit aims to support the Wahine Toa (Warrior Women in Maori) and Tamariki (Children) who have been and are being exploited in prostitution in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Rising symbolises the heart led, survivor led focus of women lifting each other up, while still being autonomous.
Aoteaora desperately need exit services and frontline services, so that we can begin to support Maori, Pasifika and Indiginous communities on the ground.
Wahine Toa Rising is on a mission to make sure women and children from our vulnerable communities are put first and are at the fore-front of our hearts & minds, that women and children are supported and are continuously supported before they exit, during and after they have exited and that Women and children’s voices will be amplified, strengthened and heard.
We at Wahine Toa Rising are committed to the Women and Children of Aotearoa NZ. Like us, they deserve to know that they are worthy, valued, heard, seen, and loved.
This grassroots and survivor-led organisation offers and supports women and children in effective pathways out from prostitution, advocates for a review of the current legal model in New Zealand, and for the equality model.
Wahine Toa Rising also spreads awareness in communities, and creates space where exploited women can exit safely and have access to all of the supports and resources they need (trauma therapy, basic life skills, housing, personal development and education).
Wahine Toa Rising is based on 4 pillars of action:
To support vulnerable women and children in the sex trade in exiting, discover who they are, and live their best lives free from commercial exploitation, violence and prostitution.
To create awareness in communities that there is nothing work-related about ‘sex-work’. Prostitution is violence. It’s time for communities to ‘be a voice’ for vulnerable women and children.
To create an online space where exploited women can access resources to exit more safely and have all of the support (through confidential messaging) and resources that they need in one place – such as trauma therapy, basic life skills, housing, personal development and education.
To create a safe space for women exiting the sex trade. A secure and safe lived in residence
named Wahine Toa Healing Retreat, dedicated to each of the lives lost in the sex trade,
including Bella Te Pania, murdered in 2019. The retreat will offer services and support such as trauma therapy, medical assistance if needed, alcohol and drug rehabilitation, access to reliable social workers, healthy eating, wellness, and basic life skills including but not limited to budgeting, cooking, gardening, re education, training, and resources, as well as a safe supportive community of survivor leaders to support them.
We recognise that exploitation in Oceania effects majority women and is gender based violence with the majority being men who buy. We mainly support women survivors however we are also all inclusive to supporting everyone who has been impacted by male violence.