Listening to Wellington since 1965
Samaritans began in London in 1952 and was the first service of its sort in the field. It is now an international movement with centres all over the world. Samaritans is a non-religious organisation and is not affiliated to any government body.
The first New Zealand centre was set up in Wellington in 1965. Wellington Samaritans has been operating ever since, typically now taking about 20,000 calls a year. Wellington, like the six other centres in New Zealand, is there for callers literally every day of the year, 24/7.
We offer callers sympathetic, caring and confidential support – whenever it is needed.
Our volunteers are carefully selected from all walks of life for their personal qualities and skills. They are then trained to be able to provide callers with the sort of support they need.
Wellington Samaritans also runs a School Awareness Programme (for further details call our
office on
The Samaritans do all this with almost no government funding. We rely exclusively on the generosity of individuals, trusts and foundations for the thousands of dollars we need to raise each year to continue our service. See the How Can I Help? page.