“Strength Over Silence” campaign launched in Lethem
Miss World Guyana Quarter-Finalist, Launches her Beauty with A Purpose Campaign.
Press Release:
Miss World Guyana Candidate- Aaliyah Anthony, has officially launched her Beauty with a Purpose
campaign – “Strength Over Silence” in the municipality of Lethem on June 22nd 2019.
The event was a beautiful continuation of Aaliyah’s work in her country as residents from Lethem and also Brazilian neighbors came out to support the young woman in the initiative she is heading.
The Strength Over Silence campaign is a campaign that will champion survivors of sexual violence, educate the general public on the various types of sexual violence, incite the spirit of speaking up in those who experience sexual violence so that a light could be shown in the shadows of silence where perpetrators hide, and generally bring awareness on the issue. The ultimate goal of this initiative is prevention. In her own words Aaliyah explains “when I speak about prevention, I mean creating mass condemnation of sexual violence and making that the new norm so that it becomes harder and harder for these types of abuse to persist without retribution. This means changing social norms and maybe even certain laws.”
One special highlight of this event was the inclusion of the voice of the LGBTQ community when it comes to sexual violence; an issue that is plaguing the Guyanese society. When the conversation of sexual violence arise the LGBTQ society is often not involved in the conversation and Aaliyah believes that this community experiences a lot of sexual violations but because of the stigma attached to being LGBTQ they are not comfortable coming out and telling their stories.
This initiative is part of a year long journey that Aaliyah along with the other candidates of the Miss World Guyana 2020 competition had committed themselves to.“My hope is that I am able to use my platform to speak up about this issue and really see a change in the way we look at survivors of sexual violence but also the way we reprimand these actions. We don’t want to continue in a society where people can violate other people and be protected because they have power or simply because there isn’t enough education for the victims on how to handle these types of situations, or maybe they don’t feel safe. Silence doesn’t give us a chance to prosecute or reprimand
perpetrators for sexual violence, ever.” – Aaliyah Anthony.
