Teia Wallace is fighting for Thursdays in Black Otago. Literally.

This Friday 12th July, Teia Wallace will be stepping into the ring for the OUSA Charity Fight Night. We are beyond stoked here at Thursdays in Black Otago to be her chosen charity.

The OUSA Charity Fight Night started just last year and saw a collective $26,000 raised between 26 fighters for their chosen charities and not-for-profits nation-wide. So far, Teia has raised over $800. 

Teia, who is a law and psychology student at Otago, said that it was the jarring statistics of adults who suffer from sexual violence anually in New Zealand (an estimated 186,000*) that hit so “close to home” and made her decide to raise money for “the pros” who stand up for survivors and educate others. 

Recent investigations into the consent and rape culture on Universities makes her choice of Thursdays in Black Otago especially relevant, and she encourages anyone else who wants “see an end to sexual violence” to donate to her campaign here. 

Unfortunately, these investigations barely scratch the surface of the reality of sexual violence on University campuses. Thursdays in Black’s national report, ‘In Our Own Words’, which surveyed 1.4 thousand students in 2016, found that 53 percent of respondants had experienced sexual assault, around 50 percent suspected that a friend of theirs had been assaulted, and 25 percent had witnessed non-consensual sexual activity. 

Thursdays in Black fights for a world free from sexual violence through a nation-wide and student-led campaign based on education, advocacy and lobbying. Wearing black on a Thursday is just one of the many ways people can get involved, by signalling that they, too, stand with survivors and believe that a different world is possible. Even if it is just one conversation at a time.

Thursdays in Black Otago encourages all students and staff at the University of Otago and beyond to stand with us, and wear black every Thursdays to show support and solidarity for survivors of sexual violence. 

To learn more about what we do, flick us an email, check out the rest of our blog or our Facebook page. For more information about the Charity Fight night, or to grab a ticket, check out the OUSA website.

* Statistic can be found at on the Sexual Abuse Prevention Network website.
Photo by Hanna Van Der Giessen