Harper Sercombe
The Australian Multicultural Women’s Association is hosting an event in Hume on Saturday in an ongoing attempt to stamp out violence against women.
Founder Geetanjali (Geet) Gaba has been hosting events like this for over three years in her local area of Wyndham. However, she says violence against women is a growing issue in Hume, forcing her to now run events in the area.
“I’ve received a huge number of calls from Hume,” she said.
According to Victoria’s Crime Statistics Agency there were 28,835 reports of family violence in 2022, 3,798 of those coming from Hume. Making the local government area the second highest Victorian LGA of reported family violence.
Through her work Ms Gaba has found that a lot of the victims of abuse are not working, therefore she is determined to get women into the workplace.
“We need to stop family violence then find education pathways and jobs for women,” she said.
Ms Gaba said that a bigger problem lies within the multicultural community as programs and local support networks can be unknown to them, therefore she is determined to embed herself and her programs within the growing multicultural community.
Saturday’s event will include a keynote speaker from the prominent gender violence group White Ribbon alongside Hume councillor Karren Sherry, the Victorian Multicultural Commission chairperson Vivienne Nguyen and Wyndham Cr Sahana Ramesh.
The event will take place at the Aitken Hill community centre at 3pm on Saturday.
