Adelaide United and the Newcastle Jets will use tonight’s match to raise awareness of White Ribbon Day.
November 25 each year is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and with the Reds facing the Newcastle Jets tonight on White Ribbon Day at Hindmarsh, both teams will use the opportunity to raise awareness of the campaign.
The White Ribbon Campaign is a worldwide movement which aims to raise awareness of the impact of violence against women, engage men and boys to take positive action to create a cultural change about violence against women, and build collective knowledge and understanding of the effective prevention of violence against women.
In Australia, 1 in 3 women report having experienced violence since the age of 15. It are statistics like this that reiterate the seriousness of the issue and are why players such as Reds striker Sergio van Dijk are more than willing to do their bit in raising awareness for White Ribbon.
“Violence against women, let alone anyone, is unacceptable and shouldn-t be tolerated anywhere,” van Dijk said.
“With the guys playing tonight on White Ribbon Day we are pleased to be able to have the chance to help raise awareness of it and hopefully help people to realize how big a problem violence against women is, not only in Australia but around the world.”
“We hope everyone can get behind the campaign and send a message that violence against women is not on.”
In acknowledging White Ribbon Day, players from both teams will have white shoe laces in their boots for the match, while the respective coaches and Fox Sports commentators will wear white ribbons.
Adelaide United FC encourages people to take the White Ribbon Oath at www.myoath.com.au or to support the movement by purchasing any of the white ribbon merchandise.
More information about White Ribbon can be found at www.whiteribbon.org.au.
