Be a part of Holly as she searches east Auckland for love and connection.
Wherein Holly stands with survivors.
Glad new yr, Reader! There’s one thing so heartening about having 365 recent days in entrance of us, through which we will hope, love and try to be good to at least one one other.
For me, one of many anticipated highlights of 2026 is the upcoming launch of a brand new charity, Tika.
I’ve watched the journey of founders Ali and Zoë as they’ve gathered help for his or her mission.
These two devoted girls, and the helpers they’ve discovered alongside the best way, are about to revolutionise the expertise of sexual hurt survivors in New Zealand.
The New Zealand Crime and Sufferer Survey exhibits that in their lifespan, round 1 / 4 of New Zealanders will expertise sexual violence.
That, after all, displays solely what survivors are able to disclose, and the actual charge of offence is estimated to be a lot greater.
At the moment, solely round a 3rd of reported circumstances make it to court docket, and fewer than 10 per cent lead to conviction inside two years.
Whereas making an attempt to course of what has occurred to them, survivors typically take care of the very actual complexities of the authorized system, in addition to the complexities of how society thinks and talks about sexual hurt.
We can not ignore the truth that sexual violence is a really gendered difficulty.
Most (however not all) victims are feminine and most (however not all) perpetrators are male.
Some victims are LGBTQI+, and a big proportion of victims are youngsters.
As all the time, sure male podcasters may have loud however largely unfounded opinions about this.
Simply the opposite day, in an Uber, I heard one bemoaning how “frequent” false accusations are, and the driving force, when requested to show it off, proceeded to lecture me with a “not all males” monologue. This resulted in a one-star score, clearly.
In reality, the common man is more likely to be sexually assaulted himself than to be falsely accused of sexual assault.
Is it any surprise that survivors are reluctant to endure the slings and arrows of victimhood, particularly in the event that they’re unlikely to see justice on the finish?
But, from my very own work with survivors, I do know that many do want to report their expertise – generally as a way to assist course of their emotions or discover some type of accountability from their attacker, and different occasions within the hope of stopping the identical factor occurring to another person.
In a method, my obnoxious Uber driver was near being proper. Not all males… and that is likely one of the causes that Tika’s work is so necessary.
Following a easy registration course of, an algorithm checks the data a survivor offers for patterns to assist determine shared perpetrators, then flags these circumstances for a lawyer to look into additional.
Widespread sense tells us that not all males are vile. We all know that if 1 / 4 of Kiwis have been victimised, it doesn’t imply that one other quarter of Kiwis are on the market doing the victimising.
And it’s necessary to get accountability from the fitting folks, for the individuals who deserve it.
Tika affords survivors a free authorized service that feels safer and extra supportive, and I’m so excited for his or her 2026 launch. I stand with survivors. In the event you do, too, discover extra info or donate at tika.org.nz.
E-mail holly@occasions.co.nz
Yours in love,
Holly
