Over the last eight years I have organised film screenings to celebrate International Women’s Day and raise funds for women’s charities. This year we’re supporting Ashiana and Women for Refugee Women.

Ashiana work in Sheffield with Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic and Refugee (BAMER) adults, children and young people fleeing domestic and sexual abuse including forced marriage, human trafficking, female genital mutilation, gang violence and ‘honour’ based violence. Women for Refugee Women support women and children seeking asylum in the UK, to ensure they are treated with justice and dignity.

In partnership with Sheffield Hallam University Students Union and Unite the Union, we’re screening ‘Desert Flower’, a powerful film following the life of Waris Dirie on Friday 8^th March 2019. Dirie was born into a nomadic pastoralist background in Somalia, and the film follows her journey as she escaped an arranged marriage at 13, and then fled from Africa. She moved to London, where she was discovered as model, and shared her experience of the female genital mutilation (FGM) that she had undergone as a child, subsequently becoming the UN spokeswoman against FGM in 1997.

Find out more and book tickets here.  Or you can donate to the charities at:  https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/paulblomfieldmp