We’re raising £2,050 to help fund the Reclaim the Night march 2020 which will campaign against sexual assault and gender-based violence. 

Who are we?

The University of Manchester Student Union's Women's Officer, Ayla Huseyinoglu, is working alongside various groups of students and staff on Reclaim the Night 2020. These include our Liberation and Access Officer, Sara Khan, and other full-time officers from The University of Manchester and other Manchester Universities, our part-time liberation officers and various student societies including the Feminist Collective to ensure that the campaign is student-led and has the interests of people who may be at risk of sexual assault at its heart. 

Our story

Reclaim the Night is an annual campaign against sexual assault and gender-based violence. The movement started in 1977 in Leeds and has grown throughout the UK since then. We march for gender equality, the breakdown of gendered discrimination and the right to feel safe when on the streets at night.

This year, Reclaim the Night is asking for help from the University of Manchester's community to help fund the march taking place on 20th February. Last year, over 3,500 people marched for this cause and we hope to recreate this level of enthusiasm and commitment to this cause in 2020.

Reported cases of rape and sexual violence are on the increase in Manchester. There are examples of students and residents feeling unsafe to be outside their homes after dark, and Reclaim the Night aims to highlight and combat these frightening facts.

This year, we march for change in Manchester. Our campaign aims include the following, and we hope, if thousands of people join us on the Reclaim the Night march, we can convince the authorities in Greater Manchester that these issues are important and are worth doing.

• We hope to get more street lighting installed in residential areas, which is proven to reduce crime.
• We hope that the Greater Manchester authorities will recognise misogyny as a hate crime before 2021.
• We want better education on consent and sexual violence for all students at all levels of study.
• We want night time economy venues to be trained by the Good Night Out initiative so that they are more readily equipped to deal with instances of sexual harassment and discrimination.

Where will the money go?

If we hit our minimum target of £1,650 we will spend the funding on the costs of security for the Reclaim the Night march. We want to keep our students and communities safe when we are marching.

If we hit our full target of £2,050, the additional £400 will be used to fund the medics who need to be on hand during the march.

If things really take off and we raise more than our target, we will use the extra funds to pay for traffic management (the Reclaim the Night march involves closing Oxford and Wilmslow Road between Owens Park and the University of Manchester Students' Union).

We will update you via our Facebook multiple times a week to let you know how we are doing!

Rewards

We have some fab rewards to thank those who donate, so please check them out. 

Find us here

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to find out how we're doing!  

Help us succeed!

You don't need to give money to help us succeed! Please share this project with anyone you think would support us – on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, by email, telephone, in a chat over the fence, on your blog, or come and march with us on 20th February!

In fact, share it with everyone you know as we think it's a great idea, and the more people who know about it, the more likely we are to make this work out brilliantly.

And we know we said you don't need to give money to help us, but we'd love it if you did! Please sponsor us and help make this happen.