12 Dec 2016
'I swear never to commit, excuse or remain silent about violence against women. This is my oath'
This week Marsden High School students and staff took part in White Ribbon Day events across the school, to raise awareness and understanding of both domestic violence and violence against women.
Our week kicked off with a formal assembly organised by the 2017 Prefecture Leadership Team (PLT), where they invited Police Youth Liaison Officer, Senior Constable Deb Chrystal to address the school on the importance of understanding domestic violence and violence against women, knowing your role and rights and finding your voice. The PLT also prepared a video presentation calling attention to White Ribbon Day and the need to be informed. Throughout the course of the week, students and staff heard from a number of guest speakers, while the PLT held group mentor sessions to students across all year groups. These mentoring groups set out to reiterate the importance of awareness and understanding around these forms of violence and highlight the significance of White Ribbon Day. To end the week, students had the opportunity to enjoy school band performances and a BBQ and cake stall hosted by the PLT whilst signing their pledge. This final event was an enjoyable way to echo the statements and lessons learnt from all of our esteemed guests.
Through these experiences we learnt that 1 in 5 Australian women had experienced sexual violence, 1 in 6 had experienced physical or sexual violence either by a former or current partner, while 1 in 4 Australian women had experienced emotional abuse by a partner. We also learnt that this violence is not limited to women and that 1 in 19 Australian men had experienced either sexual or physical abuse by a former or current partner and that it is 3 times more likely that a person who had experienced such violence was the victim of a man.*
Violence against Women is defined as "any act of gender based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women" ** and Domestic Violence refers to the violence, abuse and intimidation of a person within an intimate relationship or family unit. This violence takes many forms, be it physical, emotional, sexual, verbal, financial, psychological or even isolating a victim from their friends, family and religious organisation.
The most important thing taken away from our week long look at Domestic Violence and Violence against Women is that, we have a voice. We can 'Stand Up, Speak Out, Act'***
For more information related to this article please click on the links below.
** un.org
*** White Ribbon Day
To see photos from this event, please view our Photo Gallery.