30 Reasons to love AWARE!

30 years ago, a group of dedicated women founded an organization with the vision of making gender equality a reality. AWARE began with this spark and has since blazed a trail with its many achievements. To commemorate this grand milestone, here are 30 highlights from our past years, which are also 30 reasons to love AWARE:

1. Tens of thousands of calls from women in crisis led to support from our Helpliners
2. Hundreds of legal advice sessions provided to women in crisis situations
3. Trained befrienders assist women in obtaining the legal protection they need in family violence and sexual assault cases
4. Creation of the first and only Sexual Assault Care Centre in Singapore
5. All Fired Up! – bringing together hundreds to celebrate gender equality on International Women’s Day at Hong Lim Park
6. Standing strong with other civil society groups to promote advocacy and activism for human rights and gender equality
7. Dr Kanwaljit Soin’s groundbreaking Family Violence Bill – her provisions were later incorporated into Women’s Charter
8. Eradicated the existence of the medical school quota
9. AWARE awards finally giving much deserved recognition to and celebration of local gender equality champions
10. The hilarity of the annual Alamak! awards
11. Revisions to Voluntary Sterilisation Bill to protect the mentally disabled
12. Our annual Budget advocacy – working hard to push for economic inclusivity and policies and programmes that promote equality
13. We Can! campaign and its 2,000+ Change Makers standing for a more equal, respectful and violence-free community
14. Stop Trafficking SG coalition – collaborating for the petition for the inclusion of victims’ rights as well as prevention of trafficking
15. Equal civil service benefits – medical benefits for both men and women!
16. Our wonderful community of volunteers – Helpliners, Befrienders, fundraisers, writers, designers, event organisers and so many more
17. Our commitment to evidence-based advocacy – factual and informed scrutiny of policy and practice
18. A strong voice in mainstream and social media for equality, inclusion and human rights
19. Changes to Evidence Act in 2011 to further protect victims of sexual assault
20. Helping men understand the dangers of celebrating sexual violence by requesting a change of lyrics in ‘Purple Light’
21. Graffiti walls in our toilet cubicles because feminists can have a sense of humour too!
22. The momentous 2009 EGM – thousands of supporters united in inclusion, inspiration, and democracy in action
23. Successfully pushed back against Graduate Mothers Scheme
24. Held a vocal advocacy against sexual harassment in the workplace with our SH.OUT campaign and secured the Protection from Harassment Act
25. Three former Presidents as former NMPs: Kanwaljit Soin, Claire Chang and Braema Mathi
26. CEDAW advocacy – holding Singapore to account for its obligations under international human rights law
27. Secured paternity leave in 2013 so that dads can be dads
28. Gender Equality IS Our Culture – our collaboration with our Indonesian partner Solidaritas Perempuan
29. A leading provider of anti-harassment training, as well as diversity and inclusion programmes, for employers and institutions
30. Last but most definitely not the least, our annual Ball held in celebration of our work for gender equality!