Gloria Kalache

This article contains references to domestic violence. Uyen Truong arrived in Australia from Vietnam in 2012 looking to start a new life with her husband and children. But she says living with her now ex-partner and in-laws became difficult. "Four years total we lived together. I had too much stress, sad, violent — but at that time I didn't know that it's called violence," she said. "I just tried really hard to be a good wife, good daughter-in-law.

As the stormed the Afghan capital, Kabul, last August, judge Shakila Abawi Shigarf was in her office. As the news filtered through of what was happening, she did not know what to take with her, but she knew she had to leave to save her life. “I left the office and I didn’t know what to take — I was thinking to take my log book, my laptop I didn’t know what to take I just wanted to save my life,” she told SBS News. The 61-year-old walked for hours to get home, finally reaching her family.

A new refuge dedicated to housing women aged over 50 has opened in Melbourne. The facility in the suburb of Box Hill, called The Gardenhouse, offers emergency accommodation for the growing number of older Australian women who are ending up homeless with a temporary safe haven. Vanessa* was 60 when she found herself homeless. After a marriage break-up, she travelled overseas to help look after a sick family member - but when she returned she was unable to find work.