A group of young women from social action group ‘Go Girls’ last Friday joined forces to help create public awareness of the devastating impact life destroying crimes like child sexual exploitation, human slavery and human trafficking are having on the lives of many young people in today’s society.
Held at the Riverfront to coincide with ‘International Day of the Girl’, the ‘Every 30 seconds’ event saw over 120 people come together to see a live theatre performance and hear the passionate pleas and sobering thoughts of a group of award-winning young women aged 15+ called the Go Girls who urged the audience to “stay safe and be aware of the dangers”, “vigilant to the signs” and “not be afraid to report any concerns and suspicions”.
Sam Howells, Charter Housing Community Development Manager (Family and Young People said: “Young women are being exploited daily throughout the world and particularly in the UK; only recently, the harrowing tv documentary ‘The Betrayed Girls’, exposed how hundreds of vulnerable young girls had easily fallen prey to the Rochdale ‘sexual grooming’ gangs”.
“We are very proud of the Go Girls making a stand, creating awareness of the exploitation happening on all our doorsteps, by drawing on their own life experiences to inspire and make a positive difference to the lives of other young women.”
International Day of the Girl was set up by the United Nations in 2011 “to highlight and address the needs and challenges girls face while promoting girls’ empowerment and the fulfilment of their human rights”.
Leah Hill, 25 is a fully fledged member of the empowering Go Girls, and said: “We have worked really hard over the last few months to create this event, and have put in a lot of our own time to make the event interesting and informative.
“We especially want to make young people aware of the dangers of social media and online grooming, and highlight that human trafficking and modern day slavery is one of the highest crimes in the UK.
It is important that both young people and professionals are aware of the dangers, how to stay safe and where to go for support.”
Go Girls is a partnership project between Bron Afon and ourselves for young women aged between 15-25 living in Torfaen, Newport, Caerphilly and Monmouthshire.
Article added: 17th October 2017
