Over a third of the world’s population are currently under varying levels of lockdown. As the truly devastating effects of the coronavirus continues to tear apart nations under its tight grip, the most vulnerable in society risk sliding under the radar in not only the UK but all over the world. Spain, Italy, Brazil and China have all reported an increase of citizens accessing domestic abuse services. It is a similar story in Germany, Cyprus, India, Greece and the list goes on and on. The UK has seen an exponential rise in domestic crimes
Stay Home, Stay Safe?
​
'we cannot become complacent. There is a lot more to be done.’
with leading domestic abuse charity, Refuge, reporting a 7000% increase in calls to their hotline in single day. Even more devastating is the news that murder ‘by a partner’ doubled in April from two to five victims a week. Although Scotland continues to record lower rates of deaths from abuse and levels services are accessed, Scottish Women’s Aid has recorded 41% more calls on average. For Women’s Aid champion, Annie Bird, the news has been awful but says that the truth about domestic abuse in the UK was already devastating before COVID 19. ‘There is a lot of awful things happening currently but this news was one of the most upsetting things I have read so far…Even beforehand, approximately 2 women per week were killed by a partner or former partner in England and Wales alone. This is a crisis in and of itself. Charities like women’s aid are vital and do fantastic work to combat statistics like these but they cannot do it without support from the government.’
The Edinburgh born 22-year-old has been involved with Women’s Aid for the past five years working to help fundraising efforts and increase awareness over the last four years during her time as a theatre studies student at the University of Glasgow, ‘When I heard that the charity fashion show society at Glasgow was raising money for Glasgow Women’s Aid I was keen to contribute! As a survivor myself it means a lot to me that charities like Women’s Aid are working so tirelessly to help and support women and families affected by abuse.’ The charities champion not only helped with her universities fashion show but also contributed artwork to Blossom Zine magazine raising £600. Also taking part in ‘Jailbreak’., a challenge that sees teams try to get as far away from their university campus as possible in 36 hours. Annie’s team raised £300 with £4200 raised overall from the event.
'...unfortunately sex education just does not cut it...'
Annie has been able to keep up to date with the charities news by joining their champions scheme, ‘Becoming a champion of the charity is a great step because it does not take long to sign up and it keeps you in the loop of how you can help. I signed up to be a champion a while ago which means I get regular email updates with petitions and ways I can help, like writing to MP’s, and just generally keep up to date with what the charity is up to.’ Women’s Aid are, ‘at the forefront of shaping and coordinating responses to domestic abuse.’, with their 300 service points designed to be easily accessed on a local level. However, one of the key objectives of the charity is to educate people on domestic crimes, ‘They not only provide almost 300 services for people affected but they also educate and inform the public, raise awareness and campaign constantly to tackle the wider issue societally.’
Annie Bird, Women's Aid Champion
Artwork by Annie for Blossom 'Zine, Glasgow Women's Aid
For Annie, education is the key to helping the battle against domestic abuse and says that the lessons provided by Women’s Aid are so important for moving forward, ‘I think the lessons and information they provide on social media and elsewhere is invaluable. Especially to young women, who need to hear this information because unfortunately sex education just does not cut it now.’ It was back in 2018 when issues began to be raised regarding sexual education in schools as it was revealed there was significant gaps in the curriculum. The Sex Education Forum and the National Education Union published research which showed that over half of the 16-17-year-olds polled wanted more time spent on sex education and a third did not feel like the subject was being taken seriously enough. However, the perhaps more worrying statistics came from the 20% that were not taught about abusive relationships, the 18% who weren’t told who to go to if sexually assaulted, the 23% who were not warned about what grooming looked like and the 23% that hadn’t been taught how to tell if they were in a healthy relationship. This is why the work of Women’s Aid is so vital says Annie, ‘There needs to be more information on consent, coercion and control in schools, and women’s aid is doing everything they can to make up for where sex education is lacking.’
As for now, Annie believes there are signs of a shift in conversation towards a more abuse and female conscious future, ‘In many ways I feel like female voices are being heard more than ever, with movements like #MeToo and body positivity making huge waves in society and conversations surrounding intersectional feminism and privilege working their way into the public consciousness more and more.’ Despite this, Annie says this is a difficult idea to comprehend as we are still seeing repeated signs of systematic downfall, ‘Simultaneously you have Alex Salmond being acquitted of 12 charges of sexual assault and attempted rape only weeks ago, and Trump still being in power. There is a lot more to be done.’
For charities like Women’s Aid, funding bodies are key to them being able to continue to deliver their services and message across the UK. Despite an injection of £1.35 million from the Scottish Governments community funds last month into Women’s aid, a lot more needs to be done to improve the services provided. Annie says, ‘Urgent action is needed always, but particularly in the current crisis.’
'The Home Secretary has announced the government’s support of victims of domestic abuse during the pandemic, but as Women’s Aid has pointed out, COVID-19 poses a great threat to the charity financially due to staff shortages and working from home and they need more funding to get through it.’
As opportunities for domestic abuse increase during lockdown, the shortfalls of the governments protection of some of the countries most vulnerable has become apparent, ‘For example, their live chat receives no government funding currently but needs it in order to stay open all day. The Home Secretary has announced the government’s support of
victims of domestic abuse during the pandemic, but as Women’s Aid has pointed out, COVID-19 poses a great threat to the charity financially due to staff shortages and working from home and they need more funding to get through it.’
​
As national isolation continues, it looks like the number of domestic crimes and abuse related deaths will continue to rise as the undercurrent of a stay at home culture rears its ugly head. The young charity champion can only hope that, ‘the government will start to take women’s charities more seriously and invest more into helping them thrive especially with the recent statistics about domestic abuse during the pandemic.’ Women’s Aid will continue to support females up and down the country through, what are set to be, more exceptionally challenging months but for Annie and women everywhere ‘Charities like women’s aid are vital and do fantastic work to combat statistics like these but they cannot do it without support from the government.’ Although, great work continues to be done, Annie says that ‘We are headed in the right direction in many ways’, and the future for women is bright’ however, ‘we cannot become complacent. There is a lot more to be done.’
For information about how Women's Aid are here to help during lockdown click HERE