One young woman in a hijab buried her face in her hands as she tried to tell the story of being promised in marriage when she was just 12.

Another told the group gathered for the launch of Shakti Australia - the country's first national multilingual family violence crisis line - what it was like to grow up in an immigrant family with an abusive father.

Her mother tolerated it, she said, until her children were old enough to be independent. "We have to get these women out," she said, her voice breaking. "I work at Shakti because I'm doing this for my mum."

The new multilingual crisis line and drop-in centre based in Scoresby, in Melbourne's south-eastern suburbs, is a significant milestone in Australia's efforts to end violence against women in multicultural communities.

Shakti is also lobbying for funding to open Australia's first culturally specific refuge.

As well as family violence, Shakti Australia will shine a light on the issue of forced, servile or underage marriage in Australia's Asian, African and Middle Eastern migrant and refugee communities, its founders say.

The crisis line will be based in Victoria and respond to queries across Australia. Cases based in Sydney will be referred to a Shakti team based in Paramatta. In other states, crisis cases will be referred to local partners.

About 15 per cent of Australia's population are born outside of Australia (30 per cent in Melbourne and 35 per cent in Sydney) and are particularly vulnerable because of a lack of culturally relevant services and language barriers.

"Domestic violence is still not recognised as abuse or even an issue in immigrant communities," said Farida Sultana, one of Shakti's founders. "I went through 10 years of this myself but I decided I did not want my daughter raised to believe she was worth less in status, or education or money."

Many women from multicultural backgrounds preferred not to speak to mainstream family violence services because of language and cultural barriers, she said.

Located next to a toy library in an old playschool building on donated to Knox City Council in the 1970s, the new service will offer a drop-in centre as well as the crisis phone line, staffed by trained volunteers.

Annette Gillespie, head of Safe Steps, Victoria's family violence crisis line, said about 24 per cent of calls her service received were from Asian, African or Middle Eastern cultural backgrounds.

Run largely by volunteers, Shakti was founded in New Zealand more than 20 years, where there is now a network of five refuges and a national crisis phone line.

For information, call Shakti on 1800 742 584 or 1800 Respect, 1800 737 732.