List of all winners and nominees | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998
Winners 2008
Individual Award: Sabrina Qureshi
Sabrina is a passionate and effective advocate and organiser on issues of institutionalised and systematic oppression, including gendered violence. She has over the years worked as a counsellor, a refuge worker, an advocate and an organiser. She is currently on the Management Committee of Women and Girls Network. Sabrina was the co-ordinator of the Million Women Rise march and rally against violence against women on March 8th 2007 and was instrumental in developing the coalition behind the event.
Group Award: Women Asylum Seekers Together (WAST)
WAST is a group of women seeking asylum in the UK living in Greater Manchester who have established their own self-help and campaign group. Women have left their countries following torture and persecution, many from domestic and sexual violence, threat of an honour killing and FGM, and because of oppression due to their sexuality, race or political activity. WAST offers support and advice to women refugees and helps them to set up their own anti-deportation campaigns.
WAST also lobbies for the rights of women asylum seekers in general and to raise awareness about issues that force women to seek international protection and the injustices they undergo while going through the asylum system. WAST members run workshops around issues of women, asylum and gender persecution/violence for a variety of organizations including Salford and Manchester Universities, and at local community events, and for public service workers (in health, education and social services) and also give public talks on the issues around women asylum seekers and on their own individual anti deportation campaigns both nationally and locally.
WAST has published a leaflet of recommendations for good practice for agencies working with women asylum seekers and in July 2008 published their own book Am I Safe Yet? of first-hand narratives by nine WAST members. Each woman tells the story of her early life, what led her to flee her home in Africa or Asia and her experiences since arriving in Britain. The book is illustrated with full-colour portraits and poetry and contains background information on the British legal system and how it relates to asylum-seeking women and their families.
Special Award: Southall Black Sisters (SBS)
Southall Black Sisters was established in 1979 to meet the needs of black (Asian & African-Caribbean) women. A not-for-profit organisation, it provides comprehensive specialist support and services to women experiencing violence and abuse. It is managed by a group of women with long experience of women's struggles and an enormous commitment to women's rights. For more than two decades Southall Black Sisters has been at the forefront of challenging domestic and gender violence, both locally and nationally, and has been campaigning for the provision of support services to enable women and their children to escape violent relationships. The group’s aims are to highlight and challenge violence against women; empower them to gain more control over their lives; live without fear of violence; and assert their human rights to justice, equality and freedom.
Other Nominees 2008
Individuals
Jill Radford - Jill has had a distinguished career in the women’s sector including working for Rights for Women in London, writing, publishing and contributing to many feminist articles and books. As an activist and campaigner Jill has been involved with the Justice for Women, Women Against Violence Against Women and the Campaign to End Rape, to name just a few. Jill currently works at the University of Teesside where she is Director of the Section for the study of Gender Violence. Jill is also a founding member and Chair of the Tees Valley Sexual Violence Forum.
Julia Tant - Julia helped to organise the first women’s liberation conference in the UK; she worked for some years at Earlham Street (the Women’s Liberation office) and was involved in producing the newsletter. Julia is a campaigner, writer and artist. She has steadfastly held onto her feminist principles and beliefs and continues to write polemical poems and letters to the press on a regular basis. She has worked hard over many years to highlight issues of militarism, male violence and women’s oppression.
Maryam Namazie - Maryam Namazie has, through writing and campaigning, been instrumental in raising awareness of violence against women and children under Islamic and religious laws. Most recently via her work with Equal Rights Now - Organisation against Women’s Discrimination in Iran where she has campaigned against sexual apartheid and with the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain where she has campaigned to break the taboo that comes with renouncing Islam, opposing Sharia law, and defending universal women’s rights. Since women are the first victims of religion in power, Namazie’s work has been most important for women facing threats, violence and intimidation for transgressing religious norms and rules - whether abroad or right here in Britain.
Monica Hill - Monica has worked at Bradford Rape Crisis & Sexual Abuse Survivors Service for 26 years. She developed education and outreach work, particularly with young people and later established counselling and therapy services both at the Bradford centre and in a local women's prison. She has also developed an accredited programme of training in 'woman-centred practice' for counsellors, therapists and helpline workers that embodies a clear system of feminist ethics for working with survivors.
Sue Lambert - Sue has been involved for over 18 years in a voluntary capacity (as a counsellor and supervisor) with Norwich Rape Crisis, and is a founder member of Mpower (male support services); she also led the development as Chair of the Sexual Violence Alliance (SeVA) and still always finds time for everyone. She has a unique ability to manage difficult situations and maintain excellent relations with all parties. Over the years Sue has tirelessly worked to raise awareness around sexual violence as well as working on a one to one basis with survivors of childhood sexual abuse, rape, domestic violence and other forms of abuse.
Organisations
Safe Space - Safe Space has provided support services since 1988 for women who have experienced childhood sexual abuse. In these 20 years, the organisation has grown from being a small group of half a dozen women with childhood sexual abuse as part of their experience coming together to offer mutual support to one another to being an organisation today with 12 paid staff and 35 volunteers. In the course of a year Safe Space provides 2,500 counselling appointments and provides support for at least 400 women. In addition to its support services, Safe Space is very active in delivering training programmes for other agencies (statutory and voluntary) in order to broaden and strengthen the skills of people who encounter women with specific needs as a result of childhood sexual abuse. Link
Eighteen & Under - is a voluntary organisation which is innovative and imaginative in raising awareness of violence against women and children and offers practical, easy solutions. While providing support to children and young people who have been abused it also develops and delivers high quality successful solutions to challenge and change attitudes and encourage early abuse disclosures through the VIP programmes.
Newham Asian Women’s Project (NAWP) - For 20 years, NAWP has provided advocacy and support for Asian Women in one of the poorest parts of Britain. They are a model of the kind of holistic services which enable women to gather the ‘basket of resources’ they need to address violence in their lives. NAWP has also built IMIKAAN and services for young women. They are a creative and dynamic group, which grows young Asian feminists.
Until the Violence Stops (Tender) - Tender is a small local charity working with young people to stop violence in relationships, using preventative measures. Launched in 2003, Tender uses drama and education to challenge anti-social behaviour and tolerance of violence to prevent deaths, trauma, homelessness, Teenage pregnancy, and social disintegration that results from domestic abuse and sexual violence. Tender actively works in partnership with the DV women’s sector organisations, including WomanKind Worldwide, GLDVP, Eaves Housing, SBS, Women’s Aid, FORWARD, International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), Newham Asian Women’s Project, South Essex Rape and Incest Crisis Centre and Refuge. Tender uses drama and the creative arts to address issues of domestic and sexual violence, making the organisation an effective force in reaching young people and challenging a deep seated tolerance of abuse.
Safeguarding Children in Education (SCiE) - The work of the SCiE team stands out amongst the many projects that have attempted to raise awareness of domestic abuse with children, young people and those who work with them in school because it is a sustained programme of action which has worked hard over many years to change hearts and minds, and which has therefore achieved both cultural and structural change in Cheshire. It is striking that this is no a stand alone project but a whole range of awareness-raising projects which have, in turn, informed the development of services for young people who have experienced domestic abuse.
Apna Haq - Apna Haq had the courage to set up a domestic violence support service for women in their community. As well as supporting hundreds of women and children they have challenged their community to recognise the issue and challenged other organisations to address the needs of black women. Apna Haq demonstrate the value and importance of autonomous black women’s support organisations.
The Foundation for Women’s Health Research & Development (FORWARD) - FORWARD is a London based NGO with an international remit focused on eliminating practices that perpetuate the oppression of girls and women from African communities, notably female genital mutilation (FGM), child and forced marriages. FORWARD was established in the early 1980s when little was known or understood about FGM in Western societies and it when it was considered absolutely taboo to discuss the issue amongst practising communities. FORWARD was the lead organisation that overcame cultural, religious and political barriers – alongside sexism and racism – to break the silence on this subject. The organisation experienced a great deal of resistance, hostility and apathy in their endeavours to eliminate this harmful practice. Although FORWARD has an international remit, its human and financial resources are minute. There is a pressing need for the highly complex and urgent work of FORWARD to be recognised – working as they do with one of the most vulnerable groups in society, the millions of girls at risk of morbidity and fatality from FGM - and for this issue to remain on the agenda.