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Soroptimists from Newcastle upon Tyne ORANGE the world!
25th November marks the UN International Day of the Elimination of Violence against Women, and the start of 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence which ends on 10th December (Human Rights Day).
Members of Soroptimist International Newcastle upon Tyne will join other Soroptimists across the world taking action and calling for the Elimination of Violence against Women. The 16 Days of Activism against Gender based Violence takes place between 25 November and 10 December each year. The theme for 2020 is “Orange the World: Fund, Respond, Prevent, Collect!” On each of the 16 days of activism, Soroptimists from around the world will be tweeting, posting on Facebook and Instagram to raise awareness of campaigns to support women in violent situations. Please engage with our campaign.
As the world retreated inside homes due to the lockdown measures introduced to curb the COVID-19 pandemic, reports showed an alarming increase in the already existing pandemic of violence against women.
“Accompanying the crisis has been a spike in domestic violence reporting, at exactly the time that services, including rule of law, health and shelters, are being diverted to address the pandemic,” stated the UN Secretary-General’s report, “Shared Responsibility, Global Solidarity: Responding to the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19“.
SI Newcastle upon Tyne which was formed 83 years ago is currently working with the Domestic Violence Champions campaigning to raise the profile of and support the work of the Domestic Violence Champions in schools. S.I. Newcastle upon Tyne President, Chris Jones said, “Almost 1 in 3 women in the UK will experience domestic violence in their lifetime and 1 in 5 children have lived with a perpetrator. Domestic violence costs the UK £23billion a year and unfortunately it is a growth industry in the pandemic lockdowns. This has to stop, and that’s why SI Newcastle upon Tyne is supporting the Peer Educator Domestic Violence Champions to go into Newcastle schools to ensure our young women understand that this is not love and that this is not ok. The School Domestic Violence Champions they train will graduate to wear their SI Newcastle sponsored fleece with pride – women of all ages should never be ashamed of being the target of domestic violence, but our society certainly should.be ashamed of its existence”
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More information is available on our press release and women’s safe and security pages.