Manchester’s annual Reclaim the Night march will take place later this week on Thursday 21st February 2019.

Students at the University of Manchester are already gearing up for the march against sexual violence, street harassment and victim blaming by making banners to carry with them whilst they storm the streets of the city.

Last year saw over 2,000 women and men protest an unsafe society for women.

Sara Heddi, the University of Manchester’s Women’s Officer, said: “The event will inspire everyone who attends it to each stand up in their own way and that is what is going to start the change.”

Each year the Reclaim the Night campaign has objectives that it hopes to fulfill. This years main objectives are to increase lighting in highly populated student areas, to lobby Manchester council to stop cuts to Women’s Shelters, and to increase awareness of places where people can report acts of violence.

The petition lobbying these changes is currently on 850 signatures. The University of Manchester hopes to reach 1,000 signatures by Thursday.

The march will include several blocs so that societal groups can march together. This year’s blocs will include an LGBTQ+ bloc, a family bloc and a youth bloc.

You can sign the petition here https://www.change.org/p/manchester-city-council-reclaim-our-streets.

 

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