Cardiff University is introducing a Domestic Violence Awareness Society

Cardiff University is creating a Domestic Violence Awareness Society (DVAS) as part of a sixteen day campaign taking place between 25th November to 10th December.

The society is linked with the Eliminate Domestic Violence Youth Council and hopes to raise awareness of the issue in a range of different ways.

The group will provide self defence classes, army fitness sessions and give out rape alarms on a regular basis.

The three main objectives of DVAS are:

1) To ensure that young people are helping to shape and inform the way in which youth become aware of domestic violence.

2) To engage youth in the discussion surrounding domestic violence, facilitating conversations about an issue that is at times misunderstood by the youth or considered ‘taboo’.

3) To encourage those who have been affected to come forward, as one third of women worldwide will be affected by domestic violence at some point in their lives.

Recently at the Students’ Union’s Annual General Meeting, the group supported the motions on mental health and zero tolerance for harassment.

They believe the topics to be of great importance, as reinforced by Cardiff University’s decision to pass a Zero Tolerance Harassment Policy in 2015.

Cally Gormally, President of DVAS, commented: “‘Bringing this taboo issue into the light is even more important in a university environment because it can take place in so many more ways than is known.

“For many, with independence comes the opportunity to speak out – we hope that through raising awareness, those who have found it difficult can come forward into an environment where they are protected and this behaviour is not tolerated.

“In all, if we have educated one more person about this issue, we will have done our job.”

If you are interested in joining or would like to find out more about the society, you can visit its Facebook page here.