GMIT Mayo marks White Ribbon status with public seminar

Staff and students in GMIT Mayo recently held a seminar entitled, 'White Ribbon and The Story of the Inspirational Women',  in association with the Mayo Women’s Support Services and Mayo Rape Crisis Centre.

One of the speakers, Martina Tuffy, Mayo Inspirational Woman 2017, gave a talk about her life experience and some of her work in raising awareness of LGBT issues. A representative from the Mayo Recovery College, Jutta Kirkman, spoke about the challenges of mental illness and her work with the MRC organisation. A thought provoking presentation was also made by the Men's Development Network who are actively raising awareness of how men can prevent violence in the community.

Social activist Roisin Keane, a graduate of the Applied Social Care degree programme from GMIT Mayo, was instrumental in GMIT being awarded the White Flag. She says, “The flag is a symbol of recognition of the work done here on this campus by the Students Union, students in my year, GMIT staff, campus students, local organisations and the wider community in working towards creating gender equality.”

The Mayo campus of GMIT in Castlebar has been active in marking the sixteen days of the ‘Action Against Violence Against Women-towards the elimination of violence against women’ campaign which ran from 25 November to 10 December.

GMIT Mayo Student Services Officer Anne Donnelly says the seminar also celebrated the awarding of White Ribbon status to GMIT last year. “The Mayo campus was awarded the White Ribbon Flag in 2016; White Ribbon is the world's largest male-led movement to end violence against women and White Ribbon Day provides an opportunity to have conversations about the positive role men can play in preventing violence in the community. We are delighted with the success of the seminar and our work in this important campaign.” adds Ms Donnelly.