Last year over 1.2 million women were the victims of domestic abuse, and every year more than 400,000 women are sexually assaulted and up to 95,000 women are raped in England and Wales. Over a third of rapes involve a victim under the age of sixteen, and more than 20,000 girls under fifteen are at high risk of female genital mutilation in England and Wales each year.

 "AVA is committed to working with practitioners and policy makers to create a world where women and girls are free from violence and the fear of violence." says Hannah Wharf, a women’s-rights consultant who is leading the project for AVA. "Teachers have a crucial role to play in ending violence against women and girls. Around the country they are delivering lessons and running campaigns. Teachers are safeguarding children from harm and stopping the violence before it starts."

"We are working with Saffron Interactive to create an interactive and exciting digital prevention platform to help them do this by sharing good practice, guidance, and tools. It will enable practitioners to create comprehensive programmes to prevent violence against women and girls and safeguard children and young people."

Funded by Comic Relief, the digital hub will promote minimum standards and enable professionals to facilitate discussion around the issue. It will compile the findings of research undertaken during six ongoing projects in schools across England and be piloted in educational institutions later this year.

To make it happen, Saffron is building a sophisticated content-management system using HTML5 coding. Professionals will be able to register and access a personalised array of resources and guidance on facilitating discussion and developing effective education programmes.

The portal will also include a high-impact eLearning experience to deliver safeguarding awareness training to a wider audience who come into contact with vulnerable children and young people at work.  The aim is to produce a measurable increase in disclosure rates and protect children and young people from violence against women and girls.

"Violence against women must end," says Noorie Sazen, CEO at Saffron, "This platform will be a powerful tool for AVA to help put a stop to this social evil, and I’m pleased that Saffron is able play a role in creating it."