It is with sadness that we inform you that Amy Blain AWAVA’s Program Manager has resigned. Amy has been on parenting leave and has made the difficult decision to not return to AWAVA. Amy felt it was time to move on, seeking new challenges and opportunities in the preventing violence against women sector. Amy has been an amazing Program Manager for AWAVA over the last 18 months and we are all sad to see her go. We wish her all the very best for whatever she decides to do in the future. Amy has been integral in establishing AWAVA as a sound and strong National Women’s Alliance focusing on all forms of violence against women and their children. Staff, the AWAVA Advisory Committee and the WESNET Committee as lead agency of AWAVA thank you Amy and wish you all the very best for the future. Amy passes on her thanks and gratitude to you all and has thoroughly enjoyed her position with AWAVA. If you would like to contact Amy her personal email is here.
Around the nation
- In this powerful article, a survivor writes about their journey through emotional abuse
- This piece presents a cogent argument for why ‘Zoe’s Law’ should not pass into legislation
Around the world
- In the UK, TV star Chris Fountain has been sacked after videos were released showing the 25-year-old rapping about sexual violence
- Indian journalist Deepanjana Paul writes that the recent gang rape of a young photo journalist in Mumbai on 22nd August 2013, “violates all women”
- This article from The Guardian shines a spotlight on the important role police reform must play in ending spiralling violence against women in India
- In Cambodia, a new online mapping tool has been released to assist efforts to track and report incidences of gender-based violence and harness the ability of young people to shift cultural norms
- American actor and Goodwill Ambassador for the UN High Commission for Refugees, Angelina Jolie, has “urged people to join in the fight against sexual violence in warzones”
- Also in the US, Facebook Executive Sheryl Sandberg’s book ‘Lean In’ was critiqued “as a manual for navigating the workplace” and a book that “teaches women more about how to serve their companies than it teaches companies about how to be fairer places for women to work”
Publications and Resources
- In the US, the National Network to End Domestic Violence has released its ‘Privacy and Safety on Facebook – A Guide for Survivors of Abuse’
Get Involved!
- AWAVA sister National Women’s Alliance, the Equality Rights Alliance, has released the Housing Stress-O-Meter – a two minute online survey designed to uncover hidden housing stress in Australian communities. The intersections between women and children’s experiences of violence and the enhanced vulnerability that housing stress creates means this is incredibly important work
- The National Rural Women’s Coalition, also one of the National Women’s Alliances, has opened registration to its free monthly webinar series ‘A Cuppa With’ where rural women can listen to inspiration and like-minded women without leaving home
- The National Association for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (NAPCAN) will be coordinating National Child Protection Week 2013 running from 1-7 September 2013. Event registration is now open
- Registration for the 2nd National LGBTIQ Domestic and Family Violence Conference ‘Stronger links for safer communities, because it’s all of our business’ has opened and the conference will be hosted in Surry Hills, NSW from Sept 19th-20th, 2013
**Articles published do not necessarily reflect the views of AWAVA and are included as items of interest only