Blog Article | 8 March 2017

Johanna Higgs: an incredible woman behind an incredible mission

If you haven’t heard of anthropologist and activist Johanna Higgs, then something’s wrong, because this world adventurer, activist, and founder of the violence-against-women charity Project Monma is a woman worth knowing.

Johanna HiggsWhen she was 19 years-old, Johanna took a flight from her native Perth to travel Europe whence she visited the Balkans and started talking to young women and listening to their experiences of abuse. Driven by the need to hear women’s stories in their native communities, Johanna traveled across the world, discovering  that violence towards women and girls was an issue everywhere:

“There are certain things that are the same in this world, the desire for freedom and dignity, to be treated well, with respect and dignity. Wherever I am in the world I find that women are denied freedom and dignity.”  (rudaw.net)

So in 2013 Johanna founded Project Monma, which aims to raise awareness of violence against women on an international scale. Operating in parts of Latin America, Africa, Europe, Asia and the Middle-East (not to mention her native Australia), Project Monma has worked on a number of projects including an investigation into the horrific reality of Argentina as a destination for the trafficking of young girls into slavery and prostitution, and issues of sexual harassment in the Kurdistan Region in Iraq.

MissionClicking on the project’s website their mission is made clear, “to show that violence and discrimination is a global problem and is not confined to certain countries, religions or cultures and is therefore everyone’s problem.”

Working alongside communities across the world, Project Monma still aims to expand its reach, and offers volunteering projects including distributing posters, creating campaign posters and graphics. Active within select communities in Africa, the charity  runs an online shop selling handcrafted jewellery, which helps fund girls’ scholarship programs for higher education.

Project Monma also runs an editorial collective International Journal for Intersectional Feminist Studies, published “with the aim of providing opportunity for young researchers, scholars and postgraduate students to publish their feminist work and share it with the world.”

In spirit of International Women’s Day, we think a woman of such calibre in the fight against gender-based violence deserve a thank you from us and everyone fighting the same cause. Kudos to you Johanna.


Johanna is also a regular contributor to the Huffington Post, with her posts covering global issues relating to gender-violence she witnesses first hand through her to raise awareness of violence and discrimination against women and PassBlue – Independent Coverage of the UN).


_DSC0107

 

Written by Luka Vujicic. Luka is a volunteer media & app assistant at Hestia | UK SAYS NO MORE.

Blog

NatWest marks ‘No More Week’ by opening Safe Spaces for economic and domestic abuse victims

6 March 2024 NatWest Group is announcing that starting this week it will offer Safe Spaces to people experiencing economic and domestic abuse in over 360 branches across the UK including NatWest, Ulster Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland branches.  Safe Spaces, part of Hestia’s UK Says No More campaign, are designated locations which anyone ...

Read full story

Nationwide – the UK’s biggest branch network – joins Hestia’s Safe Spaces

Nationwide – the largest branch network of any UK banking brand -– will offer Hestia’s Safe Spaces scheme to people experiencing domestic abuse across more than 400 branches across the UK. A recent poll by Nationwide shows almost half (48%) the population have experienced, or know someone who has experienced domestic abuse, with almost one ...

Read full story

Hestia and UK Says No More respond to national domestic abuse ‘flee fund’

The Home Office has announced that from 31 January 2024, victims of domestic abuse who do not have the financial means to leave their abusers will be able to apply for a one-off payment of up to £500 for essential items to help them and their children flee to safety. For the first time, victims ...

Read full story