“Make things right!” the custodian of the megaphone cried.
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“Reclaim the night!” came the response, from a crowd of 300 people – mostly woman – en route to Wollongong’s Crown Street Mall amphitheatre Thursday night.
Wollongong’s contribution to the worldwide Reclaim the Night movement – a protest against sexual violence – petered out in 2008, but for the second year running the march has returned to the city. As Jack Draper told Thursday’s crowd, the need for protest remains.
“The rates of violence against women is growing, and it’s not just about more women reporting,” she said.
“In NSW we have lost two-thirds of our women’s refuges due to a loss of funding and a restructure that saw many faith-based services get an increase in funding.
“While women are being killed at the rate of one or two a week, we know that the first 12 months after leaving an abusive man is the time a woman is most likely to be murdered by him, and yet we do not provide these women, many of them responsible for the safety of their children, with a safe roof over their heads.”