Dignity
Equity, Diversity & Inclusion
This year, I'm fundraising for HopeBox Vietnam.
I am doing this run to make people aware of the extent of gender based violence as something that, globally, one in three women will experience in their lifetimes.
In Vietnam that rises to sixty-three per cent of women who will experience some form of abuse during their life. That means that we all know people who have been abused, including friends, family and even those young people we teach. Surviving trauma is a marathon, not a sprint. Through the most horrific and difficult, sometimes feeling impossible, people who have experienced gender based violence continue to live their lives.
Help me raise $2,000USD to provide empowerment for women who are survivors of gender-based violence.
Resources:
National Study on Violence Against Women in Viet Nam (2019)
Publisher: Viet Nam Government with UNFPA and DFAT support
Author: UNFPA and the Government of Viet Nam.
SOURCE: ENDING CHILD MARRIAGE empowering girls: UNICEF & UNFPA
32%
reported that they experienced the violence in the last 12 months.
63%
of Vietnamese women have experienced one or more forms of physical, sexual, emotional and economic violence and controlling behaviours by their husbands in their lifetime.
90%
did not seek to report the abuse at the time.
10%
Vietnamese women aged 20-24 years in 2014 was found to be married or in union before their 18th birthday. There has been no substantial decrease in the prevalence of child marriage.
I have started this funding campaign to push myself and raise awareness of gender-based violence.
Back in 2019 I chose Vietnam as a place to apply for work because it felt like a safe place for solo female travel, something I associated with high levels of security for women overall. However, when I was in Vietnam I was horrified to learn the prevalence of gender-based violence. As someone who works with children and young people, I felt it was a responsibility to discuss these issues, to educate myself and others. Education about issues such as consent, economic independence and relationships, are just some of the things that can go a long way to reduce the rate of gender-based violence.
For me, running is an incredible release. Running, like yoga, is a way of connecting our minds and bodies. Long distance running on trials and nature is a mindful practice, which can remind women that we are in control of our own bodies and minds. This is the opposite of gender-based violence. For a long time women were discouraged from running (the first woman to run a marathon was as recently as 1967) because it was believed women were not strong enough, or did not have the endurance. Of course we proved that wrong. Although I have done a couple of marathons and an ultra, this run will be my most challenging physical endeavour yet - 380 kilometres in just seven days.
It seems a fitting tribute to the daily, enduring battle against gender based violence.
