WHISE once again joins the monthly Community Block show on Southern FM to chat about our upcoming 16 Days of Activism Campaign 2023. Our Prevention of Violence Against Women Lead, Danielle McCaffrey, speaks with hosts Kate and Melanie all about the campaign.
This year, WHISE and other PRET partners encourage everyone to get colouring and talking with family about respect and equality. Listen to the full interview here or read the transcript below.
Colouring resources and graphics can be downloaded on our campaign page.
Transcript
Kate Knight
So this afternoon I have with me Dani McCaffrey from WHISE, Tasman Lewis from Task Force, and we’ve got Roger Hyde from the RSL joining us later from Mount Highett coming in. So firstly, welcome Dani
Dani McCaffrey
Thank you so much for having me.
Kate Knight
Absolute pleasure. So Dani is the prevention of violence against women (lead at WHISE) as we lead up into the 16 days of activism. So maybe Dani, could you start off by introducing yourself and maybe telling us a little bit about the women’s health in the south east?
Dani McCaffrey
Yeah, no problem. Yeah, as you introduced me, Dani McCaffrey, and I’m the Prevention of Violence Against Women Lead at Women’s Health in the South East. And WHISE is one of the 12 Women’s Health organisations across Victoria. We work collaboratively with a wide range of organisations and communities in the southern metropolitan region, to improve the health and wellbeing outcomes of all women in our region. Our team coordinates important work across four key priority areas, including gender equity, prevention of gendered violence, sexual reproductive health, and gender and mental well being.
Kate Knight
Yes, such great work that you do. So maybe could you tell us a little bit about 16 days of activism?
Dani McCaffrey
Yes, sure. The 16 days of activism is a global annual campaign. It’s to raise awareness against gender based violence. It begins on the 25th of November, which is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against women. And it runs through to the International Human Rights Day on the 10th of December. Gender Based Violence is more likely to happen when there’s gender inequality and sexism in society. And this is made worse by other types of discrimination such as racism, ageism, ableism, homophobia, and transphobia. And when we talk about all of these sorts of discriminations, we mean that some people are valued less than others. And when that happens, it’s easier to be violent towards those people who are less valued. But we all deserve to be safe, equal and respected. But unfortunately in Australia on average, one woman every 10 days is killed by a current or former partner.
And although men do experience gender based violence, it’s usually at the hands of another man, and usually in a public space. Whereas the majority of victims of intimate partner violence are women and girls, and it’s usually at home by someone that they know.
The first step against preventing violence against women is understanding how much it happens, what it looks like, and some of the key ways that we can stop it before it starts. And that’s why we participate in the 16 days, because it gives us an opportunity to talk about creating a more equal and respectful community.
Kate Knight
I remember this time last year you actually came into the office and ran the innocent bystander workshop for us. And that was that was a real eye opener to look into what to look out for as well as an innocent bystander.
Dani McCaffrey
Yeah and I think it’s really good for everybody to understand those small ways that they can take daily actions to, you know, create a more respectful and safe community.
Kate Knight
Yeah, definitely, definitely. So what does WHISE do to support the region during this time?
Dani McCaffrey
So we have a regional partnership called Promoting Respect and Equity Together (PRET), and it brings together 10 Local Government Councils, and lots of community organisations to work together to prevent gender based violence. And one of the projects that we worked on a few years ago involved working with schools in the region, to get students to draw pictures that challenged outdated ways of talking about what we could do, what you could do whether you’re a girl or a boy – you know, some of these gender stereotypes.
It is great to see kids drawing pictures of dads who are nurturing and mums who are firefighters and girls playing footy and stuff like that. And these drawings were used in the wider social media campaign, and a couple of them were put on coffee cups, and they were distributed across the region to try and raise awareness.
Kate Knight
Yeah, yes. So important, isn’t it? To get away from that stereotype. Oh, goodness. Me. So tell me a little bit what WHISE’s campaign this year?
Dani McCaffrey
So similar to the coffee cup campaign, this year we’re focusing on involving children and young people in exploring the meaning of respect and equality through drawing and coloring in activities. So we hope that the campaign will give people the opportunity to have a conversation with children, about what respect and equality means for them, and what it might look like at home, at school or with their friends.
And we’d love for parents, educators, teachers, librarians, neighborhood centre workers, to capture some of the results of the conversations that they’re having with young people about respect and equality, and share the children’s drawings or reflections via social media using the hashtag #16days4kids. W e hope that also the adults in the children’s lives can help create the community by role modeling, respect and equity in their own behavior and their attitudes.
Kate Knight
Definitely, absolutely. So how can people get involved?
Dani McCaffrey
So we’d love it if people could jump on our website WHISE.org.au and look for the #16Days4Kids. People can download our two toolkit which includes free illustrations created by a talented local artists called NeaValdivia. These images can be used to start a conversation about respect and equality, what it might look like in their school in their kindergarten in their homes, or their friendship groups. And we’d love it if people could share the artwork and the drawings and the conversations via social media to promote them to promote the messages within our community and across the southern metropolitan region.
Dani McCaffrey
Yeah, as I said, using the hashtag #16Days4Kids
Kate Knight
Fantastic. Excellent. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to come in today.
Dani McCaffrey
Thank you so much for having me.
Kate Knight
Absolutely. It’s always great to chat with you and hear what WHISE is up to.
Melanie
I think now, if you remember what we did for our last 16 days of activism two years ago, we actually held a photography exhibition. And it was from something that was taken from Bayside Council, and it was to put up some pictures of community leaders, role models in Bayside. So we had a lovely exhibition and the mayor, which is Alex del Porto at the time, I think came down and that was just absolutely, yeah
Kate Knight
We had a few speakers too. I remember. I remember it very well. Yeah. So visit our website to because we’re going to upload a lot of the 16 days of activism social media content as well. So can give you a little bit more information direct to maybe to some support, I would imagine. Yep.
Dani McCaffrey
And we’re gonna have, there’s a toolkit that goes with the conversations include that includes
tips about how to have conversations with children and young people.
