White Ribbon 2018

On the 23rd of November, a group of about 40 people followed boys from Tāmaki College and the White Ribbon Ambassador Mark Mitchell, to take a stand against violence towards women. This year was the second White Ribbon March to stop violence against women in Tāmaki. Last year Sonya and Osaiasi from Tāmaki College, with support from Shelley and Kieran from Shine , organised the first ever White Ribbon March in Tāmaki. Tāmaki College wanted to lead the March again this year, and HEART agreed to coordinate the event.

Tāmaki College put in extensive work – making big White Ribbons and painting a banner for the March. The students also organized a sausage sizzle at the Glen Innes town centre. This year’s March was much bigger than in 2017.

In the evening the White Ribbon Dinner was organised at Faith Family Connect. Joel and his team of friends organised the entire dinner event, the serving of food and cleaning. They kept to their commitment that no women will have to work to organise the White Ribbon Dinner. A big thank you to Tom Ngapera from Faith Family, Tamati Patuwai from Mad Avenue and Dickie Humphries from HEART Movement for sharing with us on the night “What it means to be a man” for them.

We distributed over 4,000 White Ribbons to different local agencies, church groups, businesses, and early childhood education centres to spread the words in the community about this key day and its important messages.

Some of the key organisations involved included Tāmaki College, SHINE, Tāmaki Community Development Trust, Faith Family Connect, Tāmaki Regeneration Company, and Auckland District Health Board. We would love this list to grow so please be in touch with us at heart@twp.org.nz if you will like to join the working group to organize the events in 2019.