On International Women’s Day, women around the world join together in celebration of the strength of women. Since 1908 this has been a day to celebrate the achievements of women around the world without regard to their national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic or political differences; with this year the theme focusing on ending violence against women.

IWD remembers that over time and distance the equal rights of women have progressed. Although the rights for women have come a long way there is still a way to go and much more work still needs to be done.

Violence against women and girls is one of the most widespread violations of human rights. In some countries up to 7 in 10 women will be beaten, raped, abused or mutilated in their lifetimes. The word violence itself means ‘an unjust or unwarranted exertion of force or power, as against rights or laws’; it can be manifested in number of ways including physical abuse, verbal and emotional blackmail and through acts such as Female Genital Mutilation and Forced Marriages.

Both of our current campaigns, ‘Against Forced Marriages’ and ‘Say No To Hate crime’ are ways in which we at JAN Trust are doing our part to help end violence against women.

Over the past year we have visited a number of schools throughout London delivering workshops around the issue of forced marriages. We are also rolling these out to mainstream agencies such as the Metropolitan Police and other statuary organisation. At the heart of this campaign is education. Engaging with young people, practitioners and the wider public around raising awareness of this abusive practise is a significant step towards ending this practise.  So far we have received a phenomenal response and are looking forward to continuing these important workshops.

As the team at JAN Trust put much of their efforts into making the seminars, workshops and the campaigns as a whole a huge success, it leaves little time for us to focus on the planning and efforts it takes to fundraise to keep these campaigns going. Fundraising is an important part of any NGO and support in any form helps your small change make a big difference to those suffering from violence.

To make a donation, however big or small visit www.localgiving.com/jantrust To find out more about the Against Forced Marriages campaign visit www.againstforcedmarriages.org  You can also keep up to date with our work on Facebook www.facebook.com/JANTrust and Twitter @JANTrust.