Organisers of the yearly Celebrities Walk Against Rape (WAR) campaign, Rubies Ink Initiative, have concluded plans to make the 2013 edition, which is in its third, a superb one.
The event has again been given the nod from the Lagos State Ministry Of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation and various celebrities have also endorsed it.
Kate Henshaw, Jimmy Jatt, Ali Baba, Owen Gee, Gt the Guiterman, Gbemi Olateru Olabegi, Isio Wanogho, Bolaji Rosiji, Ego Obaro, Praise Fowowe, Jerrilyn Mulbah, Jodie, Bhaira (AMBO 3), Toni Payne, amongst other top celebrities have shown interest to participate in the campaign holding in March.
The campaign will see celebs, dignitaries and student delegates from various higher institutions and secondary schools in Lagos State raise their voices in kicking against rape in the society particularly young girls between the ages of 3-16years.
According to the Project Coordinator, Esther Ijewere-Kalejaiye, “our aim is to help in encouraging victims to speak out and reduce the stigmatization attached to the victims of sexual abuse and rape as well as use ‘Walk Against Rape’ as a platform to inform the society about the soaring scourge of sexual abuse especially as it relates to young girls and women in general.”
Esther further said that “this year, we intend achieving a lot more with the campaign as we would be launching an online social media campaign tagged ‘Share Your Story…..Inspire A Victim’, a platform we want to use to encourage silent victims of rape to break the silence and speak up.
“We will be having live tweet meet interactive chat with survivors of rape who are ready to use their story to encourage others and also to let people know: Rape Is Real!!! Stories of the survivors will also be syndicated on several blogs.
“The hashtag for the tweets, which will come up twice a week prior to the Walk Against Rape Campaign, is #StandAgainstRape. All questions will be asked from our twitter handle @walk_rapeng.
“We can’t control what happened, we can’t control what has been lost. What we can control is how we fight to take that control back, and the voice within us is powerful in doing so.”
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