She Is Not Your Rehab New Zealand
Commonwealth Point of Light 218. Mataio Brown
Commonwealth Point of Light 218. Sarah Brown
Mataio and Sarah Brown, representing New Zealand, aged 35 and 38, together launched ‘She Is Not Your Rehab’, a global online movement followed by over 100,000 people on social media which aims to address the culture around abusive relationships, domestic violence, and unhealthy ideals of masculinity.
As a survivor of family violence, Matt began hosting support groups from his barbershop in Christchurch to allow other men to acknowledge their own childhood trauma. Following this, he began facilitating further anti-violence programmes, before launching the movement with his wife Sarah in 2019. They have also authored a bestselling book and are ambassadors for the ‘It’s Not OK Campaign’ run by the New Zealand Ministry of Social Development to tackle family violence.
Laura Clarke OBE, British High Commissioner to New Zealand, said:
“As we celebrate Commonwealth Day, I’m honoured to award Sarah and Matt Brown with the Commonwealth Points of Light Award. Their work with She Is Not Your Rehab is inspiring to see and clearly making a real impact in encouraging intergenerational healing and ending the cycle of domestic violence. Ngā mihi ki a kо̄rua Sarah and Matt for this well-deserved award.”
Sarah and Matt, said:
“We are deeply humbled to receive this acknowledgment and award from HM The Queen. To know that our work to create violence free communities by supporting victims of intergenerational trauma to heal is being recognised by such a powerful woman, is encouraging to us and our whole movement in our desire to have global impact around the alarming statistics of family violence – thank you to HM The Queen for naming ‘She Is Not Your Rehab’ as Commonwealth Points of Light.”