To mark 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, the lights around Richmond Park will be orange every evening from 25 November – the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, through to 10 December – Human Rights Day.
Orange is the colour designated by the UN Secretary-General's UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign. As a bright and optimistic colour, orange represents a future free from violence against women and girls.
This is an annual international campaign that was started in 1991 and is used as a strategy around the world to call for the prevention and elimination of violence against women and girls. Women and girls everywhere have the right to live free from violence and the fear of violence. Yet worldwide, millions of women and girls are unsafe every day, at schools, on public transport and at home. It has to stop.
Lighting Richmond Park with orange lighting is a joint project of Hawkesbury Action Network against Domestic Violence (HANADV), the Zonta Club of Cumberland West and Hawkesbury City Council.
Council's Wellbeing and Safety Officer, as part of the Community Planning and Partnerships team, is working alongside local service providers to develop plans to address the safety needs of women and children with lived experience of domestic violence.
Preventing violence is a community responsibility and campaigns such as this one can help to create a shared responsibility for community resilience and community safety, which is part of Council's Community Strategic Plan.
The current campaign also links in with the Hawkesbury Family and Domestic Violence Action Plan, specifically public education and information, as well as working in partnership with all relevant agencies.
If you are experiencing violence, call 000 or 1800RESPECT – 1800 737 732 or locally, call The Women's Cottage on 4578 4190.
