Rio Tinto donates $25K to Native Women's Association of the NWT

Rio Tinto, which owns 60 per cent of Diavik Diamond Mines Inc., is donating $25,000 to the Native Women's Association of the Northwest Territories to help support women and children experiencing domestic violence.

The money comes from $360,000 that the multinational mining company is giving to 12 women's shelters and organizations across Canada that support women and their families, according to a Rio Tinto news release sent out Tuesday.

The money is going to organizations in communities where Rio Tinto operates. Five of these organizations are focused on working with Indigenous women and their children, says the release.

Rio Tinto says the Native Women's Association of the NWT helps Indigenous women and their families "live free from social and economic distress" and promotes culture, language and heritage. The association offers support and information to women, men and children in the Northwest Territories.

"Over the past 40 years, the Native Women's Association of the NWT has heard the cries from men, women and children as a result of physical abuse, assault, rape, crimes and/or other types of aggression," Jane Weyallon, president of the Native Women's Association of the NWT, said in a statement thanking Rio Tinto for the donation.

Weyalllon said the money will be used to offer "personal care packages" with necessities to people experiencing trauma.

"This donation will allow our front-line workers to offer more than our compassionate care and support," she said. "It will support the front-line workers in remaining strong while addressing issues of abuse."

Weyallon said the money will also go toward the organization's Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Commemoration Project.

Rio Tinto says the donations announced Tuesday come from its Aluminium Canada Fund, which spends $10 million annually on programs and projects that benefit the communities in which Rio Tinto works, and specifically in the areas of education, environment, health and "community livability."