Goodbye from your Gender Equality Representative 2011-2012

Dear All,

Thank you so much to all of you for all the wonderful work you've done over the past year.  Being the Gender Equality Representative serving Exeter Univsersity students has been an absolute honour and I am very proud to have been part of such a community of students.  People, organisations and services both internally and extenerally of the university have worked tirelessly to reduce the gender inequalities which scourge our day to day lives.  But if there's anything I have learnt working for Exeter Students' Guild over the past year, it's that a will does exist to see inequality eliminated.  You are never alone in any battle against inequality be it sexism, racism, homophobia, classism or any other characteristic which means that people are treated undeservedly differently from anybody else.  Whilst the mountain to overcome may seem insurmountable at times, once you've found all those other people out there who feel the same way you do and who have the same vision for a better world that you do and you realise you're not alone and you start working together, then suddenly things seem a lot easier and more realistic to achieve.  We construct the world we live in.  If us humans created these inequalities it means we can eliminate them too.  And so on that note, I would ask you kindly to offer the new representative, Deanna Quirke, all the support you can give her.  She's an amazing woman and will do as much as she can for you as she humanly can.  But she can't do it alone. No one can. We have to continue to work together to be the change we want to see.

Kind Regards,

Alexa Sage

Left:

Alexa Sage

Gender Equality Representative for University of Exeter Students' Guild

2011-2012

Left:

Deanna Quirke

Gender Equality Representative for University of Exeter Students' Guild

2012-2013

Fundraising success for Devon Rape Crisis Services

Well done to everyone involved in this year’s gender equality events in particular to those who were involved with Empowering Women Day and Reclaim the Night.  The money raised from these events made a combined total of :

* * * £280.89 * * *

which is an absolutely fantastic figure.  Donations will be going to Devon Rape Crisis Services, our one rape crisis centre for Devon which reopened for the first time last year after more than a decade! Whilst it is a shame that the need for such a service still exists, the work that the people at Devon RCS do vital to helping give women the support and empowerment they need to overcome the physical, emotional and psychological effects of sexual abuse and rape.  Devon RCS and Exeter University Students’ Guild have formed a wonderful relationship over the last year in which we have worked to support each other with the common objective of eliminating gender inequality for women and men and for every gender in between. We are very proud to be the first official donators to Devon RCS and hope that it may continue for as long as the service is needed.

If you have been moved by the work of Devon RCS and were not able to contribute during the gender equality events of the last year, please feel free to offer your donation directly through their website: http://www.devonrapecrisis.org.uk/donate.  And remember that money is not the only way you can help.  You can offer your help as a volunteer.  You can publicise the work of Devon RCS by word of mouth, by hosting an event, through social media so people know about the service. And don’t be afraid to use it yourself if need be.  If you choose to come forward about anything, you will be believed and you will be supported.  But most importantly, show the world through your words and actions that sexual violence is a form of gender inequality and that all forms of gender inequality are wrong.