Many SISWP Club's have worked on projects which focus on the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls.
Here we showcase two Club's recent activities.
Club Projects
New South Wales
SI Griffith have held the event "Walk A Mile in Her Shoes" to coincide with White Ribbon Day and the start of the UN 16 Days of Activism for the past five years. This year in 2018 SI Griffith used two large displays- one at Griffith Central Shopping Centre and the other at the City Library, both focusing on pairs of shoes strategically placed over and around them. Striking graphics were used and information on domestic violence and how help can be obtained.
50 White Ribbon Street Banners purchased by SI Griffith were erected by the Griffith City Council in the main street along with a large "Say NO to Violence Against Women" banner put outside Council Chambers.
Local media coverage was excellent with articles in the local newspaper.
Western Australia
Region of Western Australia
As President for the Region of Western Australia, Anne Allen was invited to attend Government House on Wednesday 28th of November. The invitation from the Honourable Kim Beasley, Governor of Western Australia and Ms Susie Annus saw the Premier of the State, Government Ministers, Business Leaders and key not for profit and other agencies join together for the formal launch of the WA Government's 16 Days of Activism. This is the second year that the state Government has taken such a public position on this. The statistics tell a shocking story:
Every week in Australia, at least one woman is killed by a current or former partner.5
Western Australia has the second highest rate of reported physical and sexual violence perpetrated against women.6
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are nearly 11 times more likely to die due to assault than non-Indigenous women.7
Less than 20 per cent of women who experience violence from an intimate partner reported the most recent incident to the police.8
Sixty five per cent of women who experienced violence from a previous partner reported having never called the police to report the violence.9
46,886 family and domestic violence incidents were triaged by the WA Family and Domestic Violence Response Teams in 2017/18.10
The number of sexual harassment complaints received by WA's Equal Opportunity Commission doubled in the past year.11
A 2017 survey by Safer Venues WA found that 80 per cent of female respondents had experienced harassment at Perth entertainment venues.12
The total annual cost of violence against women and their children in Western Australia was estimated to be $2.2 billion in 2015 ' 16.13
Attendees had been asked to wear Orange and an Official photograph was taken at the end of proceedings. This was certainly a significant awareness raiser for WA and people were urged to keep the conversation going and to remain alert to ways that they can eliminate violence against women.
(Photo credit: Greg Lewis)
References:
5. Australian Institute of Criminology, 2015. Research in Practice: Domestic/Family Homicide in Australia, Australian Government.
6. Personal Safety Survey 2016, Australian Bureau of Statistics.
7. Based on available national and state and territory datasets: Olsen & Lovett (2016) p.13, citing Al-Yaman et al (2006).
8. Personal Safety Survey 2016, Australian Bureau of Statistics.
9. Personal Safety Survey 2016, Australian Bureau of Statistics.
10.Department of Communities Annual Report 2017/18.
11.Equal Opportunity Commission Annual Report 2017-18.
12.WA Venue Safety Stats Infogram.
13.The cost of violence against women and their children Final Report 2016, KPMG.
SI Karratha and Districts Inc
Women's Council of Western Australia launched Purple Bench Project which is a project which aims to honour all victims killed as a result of domestic and family violence.
SI Karratha and Districs Club President Elect, Viv Kamen, wrote to the Local Council about painting an existing local park bench to promote the Purple Bench Project. The council came back with the offer to include a powder-coat Purple Bench in each of the City parks that they will be refurbishing along with a new park also being created. As this refurbishment is yet to begin SI Karratha decided to do some knitting and yarn bomb the bench seats in time for 25th November (the start of UN 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence). SI Karratha and Districts were given an “un-official” nod from the Council, with the proviso that the knitting be taken down as soon as it starts to deteriorate.
SI Region of Western Australia
Friday 23rd November saw members from SI Fremantle, South Perth and Rockingham join hundreds of people representing support groups and agencies and individuals affected by domestic violence, attend the 28th Annual Silent Domestic Violence Memorial March. Prior to the March we heard from the Minister for Child Protection; Women's Interests; Prevention of Family and Domestic Violence; Community Services, the Hon Simone McGurk and the Commissioner of Police, WA Police Force Chris Dawson.
In the last 12 months 28 people have lost their lives in WA though domestic violence, 9 of these being children. Some 47,000 reports of domestic violence have been investigated by Police in WA. How many have not been reported?
Members of the WA Police Pipe Band along with the Commissioner and the Minister led the March though the City.
Mongolia
SI Ulaanbaatar
16 Days of Activism to End Violence against Women and Girls Campaign 2018 in Mongolia.
This campaign was launched on November 25, 2018 by “Walk the Talk” event organized by SI Ulaanbaatar Club jointly with National Center Against Violence NGO.
During the event, to increase the public awareness on gender based violence the members provided the local community (over 150 people) with the fliers, brochures containing the information on Campaign and distributed the fliers with safety guidelines in emergency cases.
During the event several women expressed their interest to become a member of our club and to work for women and girls. These women were invited to the club's next meeting.
Fiji
SI Ba
International Day for Women- Reclaim the Night March for Zero tolerance on rape and violence against women and girls.
Reclaim the Night March was a first for Club SI Ba. SI Ba members participated in this event to speak out against and raise awareness of violence against women and girls in the local community.
Banners focusing on a 'Violence Free Community' and T-shirts were made and printed. Candles were lit as many people marched through the town proclaiming a violence free society for women and children of Ba.
Local media were also invited to record and broadcast this march on National Television.
Thailand
SI Bangkok
Soroptimist International Bangkok's (SIB) Eliminate Gender-Based Violence committee hosted workshops at several universities in schools in Bangkok, Thailand, in partnership with Ruam Chuay. Ruam Chuay is a local non-profit organization focused on creating a safer world by running interpersonal violence prevention programs.
This project goes beyond awareness into education and prevention. Seeking to break the silence on sexual violence in Thailand and bring programs to help people learn how to have healthier relationships.
Since September 2018, SI Bangkok has conducted 11 workshops across 3 high schools and universities. Delivering our program to a total 228 students. Schools included the New International School of Thailand, Modern International School of Bangkok, and Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University.
This initiative is focused on eliminating gender-based violence. Gender-based violence is a multilayered social issue that is prevalent in Thailand. The workshops are designed to break down the concept of consent and bodily autonomy. These two concepts play a central role in creating healthy relationships and preventing gender-based violence. The workshops are interactive and engage students in a discussion on healthy and unhealthy relationship behaviors and what causes gender-based violence to occur. We work with students to uncover myths and misconceptions of interpersonal, domestic, sexual violence, why, what and who is at risk, victim blaming, how to recognize the signs and types of abuse. We empower each student to recognize how they can practice consent to keep themselves and others safe.
Observations where made that many students had breakthroughs during our workshops. It's evident through the student's comments, questions, and responses to activities that they are gaining new understanding about healthy relationship dynamics. SI Bangkok have stated that it's been very rewarding to receive and hear positive feedback from both schools and students. SI Bangkok's partner organization, Ruam Chuay, continually designs and develops new prevention workshops enabling the Club to stay up to date on this issue. SI Bangkok's collaboration has allowed the Club to make a greater impact together. The feedback received motivates the Club to continue to provide this type of programming and validates the need for sexual violence education. SI Bangkok look forward to continuing our work and reaching more students across the country.