Marie Claire Naked 2015 on sale now!
Blowing the Whistle on violence against women and children
Marie Claire’s popular Naked issue, in aid of Blow the Whistle (BTW) and supported by 1st For Women Insurance is on sale now. Featuring 35 local celebrities in the nude, the issue aims to raise awareness of Blow the Whistle’s support of women that are victims of rape and abuse.
‘This is probably one of our most powerful Naked issues yet,’ says Aspasia Karras, editor of Marie Claire. ‘We are all vulnerable and naked in the face of the high rate of violent and sexual crime in South Africa against women and children. This campaign aims to give a voice to the many thousands who suffer daily. Our aim is simple; to raise awareness and allow those who are victims to feel safe and come forward and speak up!” Anti-rape initiative, Blow the Whistle is a national campaign focused on the empowerment of women and children in the face of the incidence of rape and abuse, by giving them the platforms necessary to feel safe. They have developed an app that allows users to select four Guardians to watch over them wherever they are. The app, which can be downloaded on Whistle.co.za, has a private panic button that sends a notification to the Guardians when pressed. The app is also equipped with a journey-monitoring function, allowing users to load their journey details, as well as the amount of time it should take them to get there. If the timer runs out without the journey being cancelled or extended, a notification will be sent to the users Guardians, along with the coordinates and address of their current location. BTW has also produced small and unobtrusive whistles to blow to attract attention when one is in need of help. All proceeds of the Naked campaign will go towards BTW’s partner, The DNA Project, which works on the development of crime scene DNA forensics. The DNA Project is aimed at expanding the existing National Forensic DNA Database of South Africa that holds the DNA profiles of convicted criminals. DNA profiling is a key component in the conviction of rapists. Any persons arrested for rape or sexual assault will have their DNA profile loaded onto the database, which will be searchable in new DNA investigations to establish any matches in identifying a suspect. “Blow the Whistle is proud to be associated to the Naked issue,” notes Mike Rowley and Sureshnie Rider, co-founders of the BTW campaign. “Blow the Whistle is about giving woman a voice and allowing them to be heard,” states Rider “This issue really speaks to that voice. It’s about empowerment. It’s about all citizens forming a community and starting a conversation.” As Rowley concludes, “Our women and children are our nation’s greatest asset and we cannot fail them.”
How to get involved:
Share your voice! Speak up and tell others to do the same. Marie Claire has created a picture gallery on its website (Marieclaire.co.za), where readers can post their message of support or opinion on sexual violence. This gallery will be shared
on Marie Claire’s Facebook page. To drive engagement and more discussion; 1st For Women Insurance will donate R10 000 towards The DNA Project when the Facebook gallery reaches 1 000 shares
Donate: SMS the word ‘WHISTLE’ to 38157 to make a donation of R10 towards BTW. • Buy a whistle for R36 from The Cross Trainer stores or from hotels in the the Legacy Group around South Africa. (For more information, visit Whistle.co.za) Supporting this year’s campaign is 1st for Women Insurance.
Robyn Farrell, the executive head of 1st for Women Insurance and a trustee of the 1st for Women Foundation says: “We are proud to sponsor Marie Claire’s Naked campaign. We believe that it cuts through the charity clutter and makes a bold statement – it exposes the naked truth of the rape epidemic and forces South Africans to pay attention and start a conversation. The purpose of the campaign aligns with the aim of the 1st for Women Foundation which has, since its inception in 2005, donated over R30 million to a number of women-related charity organisations that focus on assisting survivors of gender-based violence and making the HPV vaccine more accessible to South African women.”
Celebrities taking part in this year’s campaign are:
THE COVER STAR, Lira THE DJ, DJ Milkshake from 5fm
THE SCREEN STARS, Pearl Thusi and Masasa Mbangeni
THE BLOGGERS, Daniel Nash, Thithi Nteta and Andrew Berry
THE PERFORMERS, Chris Chameleon and Danielle Deysel
THE COMMEDIANS, Angel Campey and Shimmy Isaacs
THE FUNNY GUY, Schalk Bezuidenhout
THE MUSIC DUO, Michael Lowman and Daisy May
THE SPORTS STAR, JP Duminy and his wife, Sue Duminy
THE TV PRESENTER, Ewan Strydom
THE BREAKFAST TEAM, Guy McDonald, Carl Wastie, Sandra Rosenberg and Erin-Li from Good Hope FM Breakfast
THE MODEL, Joelle Kayembe
THE FASHIONISTA, Katherine Pichulik
THE ROCKSTARS, George van der Spuy, Rian Zietsman, Jason Ling and Louis Nel from Taxi Violence
THE SOAPIE QUEENS, Nadia Velvekens, Leandie du Randt and Amalia Uys
THE MEN OF THE MOMENT, actors Stefan Ludik, Reynardt Hugo, Theodore Jantjies and Nkululeko Tshirumbula and radio personality Vic Naidoo
Marie Claire will post more content, interviews and behind-the-scenes videos of this year’s Naked campaign online, as well as more information on BTW.
For all the updates, go to: Marieclaire.co.za To follow the story on Facebook: Facebook.com/MarieClaireSA Follow Marie Claire on Twitter: @marieclaire_sa #MCNaked Follow Blow the Whistle on Facebook: Facebook.com/WhistleSA or Twitter: @WhistleSA
