Rally to keep women safe
Community services in Karratha gathered together last month for an event which formed part of the 16 Days in WA to Stop Violence Against Women campaign.
Mission Australia, Karratha Police, FMG, Anglicare WA, Karratha Women's Refuge and Pilbara Motorcycle Sisters were just some of the local organisations which rallied together to show their support to the cause on November 22.
The 16 Days campaign is designed to raise awareness, increase positive actions and highlight organisations, agencies, communities and individuals working together to end violence against women.
In Karratha, a community barbecue was provided by the Men’s Shed, cupcakes were donated by Pilbara Bakehouse and other in-kind donations were received by a variety of other local businesses.
Karratha Women’s Refuge outreach workerChristine MacDonald the topic of family violence is something which has always been swept under the rug.
“We want to help people understand that what they’re going through is not acceptable, but there are people out there who want to help and there are plenty of places in town where they can go,” she said.
In the 2019/19 financial year, police officers in the Pilbara District attended more than 3600 calls to police for assistance resulting in over 2800 reports.
In 2018, police in the Pilbara investigated 2624 acts of family violence, locally this was 654, or two per day, in Karratha and 365, or one per day, in Roebourne.
Statistics also show that 95 per cent of all victims of family violence, whether men or women, experience violence from a male perpetrator.
Ms MacDonald said the event also featured a display containing pictures of all the women who lost their lives to family violence over that past year. “That display was hard hitting,” she said.
“You often see stories on the news, but the reality is there is someone killed by a male perpetrator every week in Australia and since the display went up, at least one woman would have been killed over the next weekend.”
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