SPEAKER:
EMMA FULU
FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE EQUALITY INSTITUTE
Bob Davis introduced Emma Fulu who had attended the same school as his daughter. Emma had been a Rotary Exchange scholar in Japan in the late nineties. (In fact, Bob told us he was introduced to all the great work carried out by Rotary as a result of hearing about Emma's Youth Exchange Program).
Post Rotary exchange, Emma completed her High School education and went on to complete a Bachelor of Arts and Commerce at University of Melbourne, followed by Honours in Gender and development at ANU. She then returned to Melbourne to complete a PhD on Gender studies.
She worked for a United Nations regional joint programme called Partners for Prevention which focused on the prevention of gender-based violence in the Asia-Pacific region.
In 2014, a mother of three, and still breastfeeding her twins, she moved to South Africa to lead one of the largest global programs to prevent violence against women and girls in low- and middle-income countries. She found that she was “spreading herself too thin”, resigned the job and returned to Melbourne to heal and re - examine her direction and her options.
In 2015 she launched The Equality Institute -
"a global feminist agency working to advance gender equality and end violence against women and girls."
It's vision
"A world in which diversity is celebrated, all people are respected, and power and resources are shared."
Find out more at https://www.equalityinstitute.org/
A few interesting points from her presentation on Domestic Violence (Violence against Women and Children or VAW)
- Ending domestic violence is one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals
- One in 3 women experience domestic violence.
- 6% of men report experiencing violence at the hand of an intimate partner
- Australia has a higher incidence VAW than comparable high-income countries
- In Australia, domestic violence costs the economy $ 21.7 billion per year
- A major contributor to this culture of VAW is gender inequality
- Children exposed to domestic violence are more likely to
- be abused and
- become abusers
Emma is optimistic that we can actually put an end to domestic violence. She feels that we have already made great strides in the last ten years, with legislation, and public education.
Read also : HOW EMMA FULU LET GO OF SUPERWOMAN AND FOUND HERSELF
https://futurewomen.com/leadership/leaders/how-emma-fulu-let-go-of-superwoman-and-found-herself/