CHURCHES in Kingsbridge are coming together to ‘shine a light on violence against women and girls’ on Friday.

Members of the church will be outside St Edmund’s Church, Fore Street, Kingsbridge, on Friday, November 25, at midday to hold a candlelit show of solidarity against gender violence.

Friday is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and starts 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, an international campaign.

St Edmund’s Church, Dodbrooke Church, Kingsbridge Methodist Church and allies are coming together on Friday to stand in solidarity with victims across the UK and the world.

The World Health Organisation, WHO, estimates that about one in three women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime.

Most of this is intimate partner violence, with 30 per cent of women in the world experiencing violence from their partners in their lifetime.

In the UK, up to three million women experience violence, and there are many who live with the legacies of abuse experienced in the past.

Ban Ki moon, United Nations Secretary General, said: ‘Violence against women continues to persist as one of the most heinous, systematic and prevalent human rights abuses in the world. It is a threat to all women, and an obstacle to all our efforts for development, peace, and gender equality in all societies.

‘Violence against women is always a violation of human rights; it is always a crime; and it is always unacceptable. Let us take this issue with the deadly seriousness that it deserves.’

If you would like to attend, arrive at St Edmunds Church, near the Shambles on Fore Street, Kingsbridge, at midday on Friday.