#Reclaimthestreets

Mary and Jackson’s 97km fundraising run!! 🏃‍♀️ 🏃‍♀️

Following the recent heartbreaking news regarding Sarah Everard, an outbreak of social media support and discussion has arisen surrounding women’s safety. Many women don’t feel safe walking on their own, having to cross streets to avoid strangers, wear their hoods up to hide their identity, a pair of trainers incase they need to run should they be approached in an intimidating manor. In the 21st century, women should not have to feel this way. I believe part of the reason this fear exists is because of the unspoken levels of sexism and sexual violence that exist in the world today. 97% of women aged 18-24 in the UK have experienced sexual violence in some form or another whether that be catcalling, verbal abuse or physical abuse. That statistic is appalling. Having experienced countless situations of sexism and sexual abuse I am extremely passionate about this subject. I believe it’s important that discussions start to take place regarding the manor in which women are spoken to and acted towards in everyday life. I think it’s important that men play their part in calling out their peers in situations where women are being mistreated whether that be questioning why someone deemed it appropriate to cat-call that girl walking by, or calling out men who think it’s appropriate to grab a woman inappropriately. Let it be said that in no way are we saying that all men are sexist or abusive to women, and men absolutely are the victims of sexism and sexualised violence on a number of occasions (and we hear you and feel for you, no-one should have to experience this). However, at this time this movement is focusing on the shocking rates of sexualised violence towards women and we are asking men to be our allies and support us in making a difference.

As part of our efforts to raise awareness myself and Jackson Offor will be running 97km over the course of next week (for the 97% of woman who have experienced sexualised violence), wearing our “reclaim the streets’ banners. We have chosen to raise funds for Edinburgh Crisis Centre who offer support to people who have been a victim of sexual violence of any sort. This idea came to us after Alice came up with the idea of running wearing a banner to raise awareness- a fantastic idea given that group vigils aren’t COVID friendly at the moment. As a keen athlete myself who is admittedly fearful to go out and exercise on the streets alone after dark, we thought this was a suitable way to raise awareness while doing something we are passionate about. We actually tried this out today, running with our banners, and the smiles we got from young ladies in particular as we ran by and they read our banners, they really spoke volumes.

Please if you can, donate to this amazing charity. Why not join in and create your own banner and take to the streets to raise awareness and spark the discussions that are necessary to shift a change in today’s society.