Empowerment walk in Ilford to make stand against violence to women

April Mehmet is the organiser of the ‘Walk It Out’ campaign

An empowerment walk is taking place in Ilford to make a stand against violence to women and girls in the community.

The walk will take place around Valentines Park at 7pm on Monday, 26 June for the whole community to join in with.

It’s been organised by April Mehmet who created ‘Walk It Out’ in 2021 – a campaign dedicated to improving the safety and wellbeing of local women.

The campaign has previously led walks, self defence and first aid workshops.

April said: “Walk It Out” is an organisation committed to  tackling inequalities and crime through building community relationships. Our goal is to raise awareness for women and girls and to improve women’s safety and empower females to stand up for themselves at home and in public.

“During the pandemic, and after the death of Sarah Everard and obviously with Covid 19, anxiety had risen and domestic abuse had risen, I felt like there was a need to support women further so I decided to put out a message saying who wants to come out for a ‘Walk and Talk with me because women were feeling quite vulnerable and fearful of walking out on their own.

“So basically, walking is one of our main activities that we provide. We provide a range of free activities designed to build confidence in women.”

The campaign has led self defence workshops previously

“It’s all about creating that safe space for women so when we do come together they do feel safe to share their experiences. And obviously living in a multi cultural city, it’s good to bring different women together from different cultures to help understand one another and to break the barriers and perceptions towards women. We are continuously trying to improve the mental wellbeing in women and just empowering women to help themselves,”  she said.

“We’ve been doing alot to raise awareness and to stop male violence against women and trying to break this normal life cycle of behaviour towards girls. Everyone should really stand up to violence and sexual harassment against women and girls because otherwise it still continues. That’s why we’ve decided to do the walk on Monday, 26 June. We’re trying to get the whole community to come together, to work collectively to stamp out violence against women.”

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