|
Brave was founded in 2018 by Jessica Tyson, Miss World New Zealand 2018 as part of her Beauty With a Purpose charity project. Each national Miss World titleholder will work on one charity project about one of the most pressing issues affecting young people in their country. Jess chose to focus sexual violence and helping young people affected.
"As a child, I was a victim of sexual abuse and at eight years of age I went to court to fight the case in a trial against the perpetrator. Unfortunately, my family and I lost the case - but on the positive side, I was really lucky at the time to be surrounded by an amazing, supportive family and people who cared for me. With counseling and family support I healed really well following the experience and have gone on to live an amazing life! I know that the topic of sexual abuse or violence is hard for people to talk about or heal from and people are often too afraid or embarrassed to ask for help. I would like to share my story to young New Zealanders that if they have been victims of any type of sexual violence there is support available to help them heal from it and I want to be there to help them." Jess is also a news reporter and presenter at Māori Television. To establish Brave, Jess has received expert advice and training from the team at Rape Prevention Education. She has also partnered with New Zealand's first sexual harm support line Safetotalk as a gateway to provide 24/7 support to anyone affected by sexual harm. |
LEFT: Jessica teams up with Safetotalk to provide 24/7 support for people affected by sexual harm.
|
ABOVE: Jessica meets with RPE Executive Director Debbi Tohill in a workshop on how to deal with disclosures.
|