Review of the Year: My Reflections
In (another) year of high-profile cases of alleged male violence against women & against children: Michael le Vell, Charles Saatchi, Ian Watkins, the need for victim-centred services is paramount. The continued & dedicated services of Women's Aid & Rape Crisis provide vital support for those affected by Domestic & Sexual Violence & Abuse (DSVA). In addition to these services, this year has seen a surge of online activism – using social media to reach people. EVB is one of those campaigns.
My involvement with EVB since May 2013 has been nothing short of rewarding. From writing posts, to sharing tweets, to campaigning, delivering presentations & training, it is fulfilling work. We recently published our 400th post. This was a powerful and saddening moment for us. The sadness is in knowing how many people are impacted by victimisation & abuse. The powerful is hoping that our campaign is supporting people to tell their story – to access support, to educate, empower & support others. I have been fortunate enough to read all of our posts on EVB. I have been affected by so many of them: choosing which post affected me the most has been difficult but I tried! The post which I keep returning to is Becoming/Unbecoming – A True Account of Fictionalised Events by @unacomics It is a beautiful and powerful illustrated account of rape & sexual abuse.
It’s been a challenging “birth” for EVB. We are a voluntary campaign & our founders either work full-time, study, volunteer for other projects, have care-giving duties or a combination of all 4! On reflection, we have realised that we can’t do this on our own. The recruitment of social media volunteers has been vital for our campaign & something that we hope expands into 2014.
Our hope is that 2014 is a year for structural change that supports & empowers victims of DSVA. With so many incredible campaigns & services with victims at the core of their work, we believe that we can collectively make that change.
I want to end this post by thanking those who have shared their experiences of DSVA. This campaign is your campaign. Our motivation, our inspiration, our drive, our platform is because of you. Every post, every email, every tweet or piece of feedback helps us to keep on fighting for all of us. Victimisation & blame needs to end & we will continue fighting to make this happen.
Thank you.
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