The WWDACT E-Bulletin, Issue 17/19 is out now. View this e-Bulletin in your browser here. Fill out the form here to subscribe.
Message from the Chair
A significant event took place at the National Press Club (NPC) on 21st August. Their guest speaker was Kyle Miers, Chief Executive of Deaf Australia. Kyle’s powerful talk was presented in Auslan – the first time that the NPC has hosted an Auslan speaker. We would like the NPC to provide Auslan interpreters for all their speakers, so that the valuable content is available more widely.
Kyle’s talk Does Listening Help: The Impact of Deaf Children’s Literacy presented the case for early learning and how language literacy is important for development of our view of the world. Ninety percent of Deaf children are born into families with no history of Deafness. You can read more about Kyle’s presentation here. Cee Moore, WWDACT’s CEO represented us at this event.
The flip side to this is that it has been another sobering week for our society. Violence against women has resulted in the deaths of two more women reported from different incidents in the space of several days. In addition, the trial of Eurydice Dixon’s killer is also in the news. We are now in the 36th week of 2019, and the death toll of women killed by violence is 35. It saddens me that I know these statistics, whilst working hard to change the story about respect for all women and promoting actions that address gender inequality.
WWDACT reported on the adoption of the 4th Action Plan in the National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and their Children in a previous bulletin. The 4AP runs from 2019 to 2022 and will see $328 million invested in initiatives to stop the violence. One initiative of the 4AP is to stimulate the development of more crisis accommodation around Australia. WWDACT is working to ensure that all this accommodation has minimum levels of accessibility, so that women with disabilities will also have a possibility of breaking the cycle of violence in their lives.
Remember that if you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault, domestic or family violence you can call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au. Phone and text counselling services using counsellors that have undergone disability awareness training is available. Lifeline also has 24/7 counsellors available at 13 1114.
Regards, Sue
Chair, WWDACT