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EVAW’s Schools Safe 4 Girls campaign

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EVAW Logo 2We cannot carry on burying our head in the sand and pretend abuse is a rare  occurrence.

The End Violence Against Women (EVAW) coalition’s new campaign aims to help make schools safer places for girls.

Schools Safe 4 Girls hopes to address several key issues which affect and endanger girls throughout the UK, including sexual bullying, grooming, FGM and forced marriages.

They hope that schools will be more involved in ensuring girls can protect themselves from violence and abuse.

EVAW is calling for parents, carers, students and women’s groups to contact their school to determine what the staff are doing to address these issues and what could be improved upon.

EVAW also wants the government to make it compulsory for schools to address these issues by making Sex and Relationships Education statutory.

Holly Dustin, director of the EVAW coalition, told WVoN: “From Delhi to Steubenville Ohio there is global outrage about abuse and violence against women and girls.

“Here in the UK the news is full of recent stories about the sexual exploitation and abuse of girls by groups of older men, as well as ongoing revelations about sexual abuse by Jimmy Savile and others in the past.

“We cannot carry on burying our head in the sand and pretending that these are horrible but rare occurrences.

“We must start tackling our sexist and sexualised culture which provides the context in which abuse occurs.

“It is vital that we talk to young people in schools to shape healthier attitudes and behaviours to women and girls and we must also change the negative and prejucidial messages about women in the media.”

Earlier this week shadow health minister Diane Abbot spoke about what she called the ‘increasingly pornified’ nature of the culture young people are growing up with, and the damage that this is causing.

She highlighted ‘sexting’ and sexual bullying and added her voice to the call for a far more comprehensive, compulsory sex education in British schools to help combat damaging attitudes.

EVAW highlight several shocking facts on their campaign postcards

‘Sexting – sending sexually explicit images via mobile phone – is often coercive and linked to harassment, bullying and even violence’, as the NSPCC reports.

‘Sexual bullying and harassment are routine in UK schools and according to YouGov almost one in three 16-18 year-old girls have experienced ‘groping’ or other unwanted sexual touching at school’.

‘In 2011 there were 1468 instances where the Forced Marriage Unit gave advice or support related to a possible forced marriage, the majority involving women and girls’.

‘One in three teenage girls has experienced sexual violence from a boyfriend’ – as reported by the NSPCC.

‘Over 20,000 girls under 15 are at high risk of FGM in England and Wales each year’,  according to support charity Forward.

EVAW is calling for sex and relationships education in schools to be made compulsory, a call that was echoed at last year’s Labour conference by shadow home secretary and shadow minister for women and equalities, Yvette Cooper.

At present, only biological sex education is compulsory.

Dustin is clear about the part that schools can play in ending violence against girls.

“Schools,” she said, “have a critical role to play in keeping children safe by talking to them about issues such as sexual consent and how to hear it, what sexual coercion and exploitation is, helping shape healthy relationships and respect for one another.

“It is also vital to ensure that young people know they can talk to a trusted adult about these issues, and know where they can get support if they are being abused.”

And it is evident from the shocking statistics revealed by EVAW that something needs to be done.

As well as working to educate girls about relationships and where to go for help, the organisation also hopes that teachers will undergo – better – training on how to spot signs of abuse.

There are a number of ways that EVAW wants you to get involved.

Students, parents and carers: talk to your school. You can use EVAW’s template letter and questionnaire to start the conversation.

Find out what they are doing and what they could do and how they could do it.

Write to your MP and ask what they are doing about these issues. Ask them to raise them in parliament and put pressure on the government to address them.

Speak to your local authorities or local newspapers to raise awareness of the problems faced by girls and apply pressure for action to be taken.

Tell them about your concerns.

Get involved on Twitter on the hashtag #schoolssafe4girls

You can find out more about the campaign on EVAW’s  Campaign Briefing and there are a number of fact sheets available to download on the EVAW website.

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