We are delighted to have connected student Gina Nkwah with local charity Fearless, who work to break the cycle of domestic abuse. In this article, Gina takes us through her journey planning a domestic abuse awareness campaign.
Read Gina's story of setting up the campagin for FearLess below:
Conceptualising, planning, and relentlessly organising a domestic abuse awareness campaign has been one of the most ambitious projects I have started. And I feel so rewarded every day that I work hard to finalise each goal I set.
Since learning more about the world around me and developing a fervour for social issues and affairs that are meaningful to me, I have always endeavoured to do anything that makes a positive impact. Volunteering was a natural passion of mine I began engaging in from a young age. Though fortunately I have never experienced domestic abuse, I have witnessed loved ones who have been through these abusive relationships, and I grew up reading lots of stories depicting these tragedies. And so, the issue of domestic violence has always been meaningful to me. Now, with being at university and being fortunate enough to be a Gold Scholar, any opportunities to volunteer was exciting. I knew it would be enriching for me to do more volunteering for social causes I care about, but I didn’t know where to start, which is where talking with Beckie at SU Volunteering was so helpful in expanding my awareness of how to make a difference, and our talks led to the project I am currently running.
Thanks to Beckie, I was put in touch with a woman called Jess, who is the head of fundraising at the domestic abuse charity Fearless (formerly known as Splitz). From there, we discussed running a domestic abuse awareness campaign, specifically a 16 days of action social media campaign, starting from the 25th of November. I wanted to raise awareness about domestic violence amongst my peers, and so I thought it would be a good idea to collaborate with various university groups to promote posts and videos on diverse social media channels, using the central hashtag ‘#breakthecycle’. I have created social media posts packed with information about the prevalence of domestic abuse, as well as support for those who are experiencing domestic abuse, or know someone who has/is currently experiencing these incidents. Moreover, to encapsulate the different settings in which domestic violence can occur, and how it intersects amongst race, gender, sexuality, disability, etc, I have also created posts which I hope addresses those intersections of domestic abuse. I’m very glad that so far Nightline, and the Feminism and Gender society, have shown an interest in the project and are keen to promote the posts and spread awareness, and I hope I can continue these positive collaborations with other university groups.
Right now, there is still so much more I want to achieve with my campaign, and all I can do is express my sincere passion and hopefully continue to spark conversations around critical topics and have a positive influence in any shape or form.
Thank you Gina for sharing your story with us and your fantastic work on the 16 Days of Action campaign!
Some of the posts linked to the campaign here here here and here