Battered women around the province are being given a life line thanks to a SaskTel recycling project.

A record 46 thousand old cells phones have been collected and recycled since the program began.

By the end of the year SaskTel hopes to hit 50 thousand.

Proceeds from the program are going to provide new and refurbished cells phones to women in transition houses.

235 phones were donated last year.

The provincial coordinator for the Saskatchewan Association of transition houses, Diane Delaney, says it’s a small thing but it makes a big difference to the woman who find themselves in shelters.

“Most of them living there are poor and it would be difficult for them to afford a cell phone so this way they have a phone and it helps keep them safe.”

The phones have been donated to transition houses across Saskatchewan from Meadow Lake and La Ronge in the north, to Weyburn and Carlyle in the south.

The program is called fresh start.

Customers get a credit when they turn in their old phones.