ELIZE (3rd year) 1/2

“Sexual misconduct happens more often than one might expect. Pretty much everyone I know or have spoken to, has experienced or knows someone who has experienced sexually transgressive behaviour. And it is not just women who experience it. It is an issue that affects people of every gender, sexual orientation and background. This issue concerns everyone and it needs to be addressed. That is why I, together with seven other students, created the organization called ‘SafeHaven’ in May 2021.

Our idea for SafeHaven is to provide an accessible, inclusive space where everyone can come together and share their stories in a community of people with similar experiences whilst also providing people with information and creating awareness about the issue of sexual misconduct. We felt like an organization in such a form was still missing, so we wanted to create SafeHaven to fill that gap. As of now, we have an Instagram page and a website, where we provide blogs, practical information, like definitions and links to websites of other organisations, and community building. We also work together with ambassadors, e.g. experts, survivors and others who are interested in spreading the message of SafeHaven. For the future, we hope to make SafeHaven a real foundation as well as that we want to broaden the scope and activities of SafeHaven, to include such things as a podcast, workshops and information sessions at schools and for businesses about issues like consent. Ultimately, we want to keep broadening SafeHaven’s network to provide more support to people who experienced sexual misconduct.” (Elize, 3rd year, The Netherlands/Gouda) (1/2)

This is the link to the website of SafeHaven: http://safe-haven.nl/ (the website is for now only available in Dutch, but will be soon available in English as well).