Unity of France
Sisters Bernadette Mc Namara et Françoise Wyckaert
ZONTA 2021
In Béziers on November 26 (instead of the official day of November 25, the ONG “ZONTA” which is present in several countries hosted their meeting in the city of Béziers on the Allées.
Zonta is dedicated to saying “NO” to violence against women and girls in all its forms. This ONG informs and raises awareness through the form of various actors and provides financial assistance to enable victims to escape.
In France, 103 women lost their lives, including 5 in Béziers, victims of “feminicide”. In order to pay tribute to them, a garland of orange pennants was displayed, on each of which was a black silhouette with the first name of each victim and her age; all ages being concerned: 24, 80, 60, 35 … years, as the Zonta president reminds us. The emphasis is to encourage women to report their problems to the courts…only 14% take legal action.
The deputy herself is involved and shared with us the good news of that day : at the Béziers hospital centre, the actors in the fight against violence towards women officially signed an agreement; the actors included the Hérault prefecture, the deputy, the central police station (police, gendarmerie, municipal police and the hospital centre) to bring together all the links in the chain that aims to fight this particular violence.
This year 159 victims of violence were detected in the emergency room in the hospital in Béziers (152 women and 7 men).From now on, depending on the goodwill of the victims, they will be able to lodge a complaint on the spot at the hospital.
The mayor has launched a project for a reception centre to increase the care of victims. Currently 14 emergency housing flats are a step forward, but that is not enough to cover the needs.
As the president of Zonta said, “no statistic ever covers the personal history of a woman or girl who has been a victim of violence”.
This meeting gave Bernadette and Françoise the opportunity to meet people committed to this cause and to show our support for the awareness and action led by Zonta…
We are all concerned, especially men, and many of these violent acts are related to drugs and alcohol.
Because of a severe winter day, few people were present on the theatre’s square.
The end of the tunnel is not yet there for these acts to disappear… small step after small step
the actors try to protect the victims and help them to rebuild their lives…
