Red Nose
Day is something I’ve never really been enthusiastic about; I joined in the
activities they’d run at school but I never really used my initiative to raise
money or even took the time to watch the campaign on TV. This year, it’s caught
my attention when my Mum told me Zoella is taking part in a special ‘Bake Off’
for Red Nose Day.
It just so
happened that I bought some magazines for the first time in ages and in the
April issue of Cosmopolitan, there’s an article titled ‘The Red Nose Day report
that will break your heart.’ I was a little curious; sometimes the stories of
malnourished children and poor medical facilities, become… Less effective when
you’re hearing about them all the time. But this, was different.
Rwanda have
more female MPs than anywhere in the world with 64% (the UK has 23%) yet the
fact remains that 1 in 5 women experience sexual violence. The progress in
their political representation, is still yet to help the poorest women living
in poverty that is so great they often turn to sex work as a means to survive
and go on living with a fear of violence.
Money
raised in Comic Relief, is making a difference, though. The UK-based charity;
Ryico run a centre named Centre Marembo, which provides a safe haven for those
fleeing abuse and offers education courses. In an exercise to help the women
recover from their abuse, each held up a sign detailing their experiences. One
woman, was raped by a neighbour and fell pregnant at the age of 15 and was
subsequently shunned by her family. Without their support, she was determined
to raise her baby boy well and so she got a job at a hotel. When a car accident
left the woman in a wheelchair she was taken in by the centre and in the other
women, she finally found a family who loved her. Another awe-inspiring story
came from a sixteen year old who, at the age of nine, was raped by a family
friend and threatened to maintain her silence. After getting a job as a
cleaner, she refused to sleep with her employer’s husband and was subsequently
accused of stealing and held in a detention centre.
These
stories of absolute admirable bravery and strength are, of course, evidence of
the impact services provided by the money raised from Comic Relief can have on
people. However, as a survivor of sexual abuse, I also believe that there must
be a higher awareness and more money being put into services in the UK to help
similar survivors/victims.
Caroline
Flack, who specially reported on this story for Cosmo, summed it up with ‘…My
life was carefree and my parents protected me from any danger. That’s how it
should be for all of us.’
