Passionate students at the University of Sunderland have launched a new society, in collaboration with the Halo Project, to raise awareness on female genital mutilation, forced marriages and honour-based violence across the university’s two campuses and the surrounding Wearside community.

The society’s founding members have completed Halo's accredited training days to gain a further insight into these illegal cultural harms.

Sunderland Halo Hub’s main mission is to support the successful work of the Halo Project and its various student hubs across the UK and overseas in raising awareness, they have done this by hosting information stands, film screenings, quiz nights and much more. The hub also run regular social media campaigns to spread the message to audiences further afield.

Please follow their Twitter account to keep upto date with all of the amazing work they are doing: https://twitter.com/haloprojectsun1

Meet the 2019/20 Team:

Elias is the Project Director and joined the Hub to work on raising public awareness on issues relevant to communities such as Forced Marriages, Female Genital Mutilation and Honour-Based Violence.

Natalie is studying sociology which focuses on topics of inequality and injustice. She has always been active on speaking out for women’s rights and is extremely passionate about human rights. Joining the Halo Hub means that she can further her knowledge on illegal cultural harms whilst also raising awareness for this, as it can prevent someone from experiencing such abuse, every voice counts!

Shannon is a journalism graduate studying a Masters in Inequality and Society. She is extremely passionate about women’s rights and has volunteered both in the UK and overseas with a variety of women’s organisations.She has joined the Halo Hub because she wants to educate herself further on gender based violence and to help raise awareness of harmful practices such as FGM, forced marriage and honour based violence within the university and beyond.

Karen is studying sociology and her main dedication is to help women. She is passionate about women's rights and ending inequality. Getting involved with the Halo Hub has allowed her to expand her knowledge on the experiences some women face. Joining the Hub has developed her passion further into raising awareness for HBV and FGM.