We're doing a flashmob to highlight the incidence of violence against women and girls in the UK, in collaboration with West Mercia Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre and West Mercia Women's Aid.
Approximately 85,000 women are raped in England and Wales alone every year; that's roughly 11 rapes (of adults alone) every hour (https://rapecrisis.org.uk/statistics.php).
On average two women are killed by their partner or ex-partner every week in England and Wales.* (ONS, 2018: https://www.womensaid.org.uk/information-support/what-is-domestic-abuse/how-common-is-domestic-abuse/).
Ending violence towards women and girls is a key priority of the Women's Equality Party (http://www.womensequality.org.uk/end_violence_against_women) and this year we want to raise awareness by creating a visual representation of the number of women who are assaulted, harmed or killed each year.
The flashmob will involve a silent vigil of as many women as we can organise to wear white masks, with some holding placards which highlight the statistics, and others handing out leaflets for the public to take away.
Meet us at our stall on Angel Place, Worcester at 11.30am.
WE do hope you can join us.