'RECLAIM'

‘Reclaim’ was a charity-led initiative held on September 30th 2022. It used an immersive art experience to communicate the injustices of sexual violence, particularly exploring the experiences of university students with sexual violence - including testimonials from actual victims. It was organised by SASHA and the amazing artwork was curated by the artist Lauren Royall - a student and member of our society! It aims to open up conversations and give a voice to survivors/victims from all backgrounds and used art to showcase feelings that arise from victims of sexual assault - such as the affects of spiking. 

We presented speeches from our committee and members - ranging from speeches from their own experiences, a message from the artist, a poem from a guest speaker and spokespeople from the charities Support After Rape and Sexual Violence Leeds (SARSVL) - a women's rape crisis centre - & Survivors West Yorkshire - a male survivor help service - came to talk about the work they do!

In total, we managed to raise £535 for the charity SARSVL an amazing amount, which their website says: "£475 pays for eight face to face sessions of trauma informed therapy with a specialist qualified counsellor".  For our first big event, this is something the SASHA committee are hugely proud of and hope to be able to do more of throughout the next year :)