The issue of women’s safety has touched the lives of women around the world.
Recognizing that more needed to be done to keep women safe in public and in unfamiliar surroundings, a former Miss Derry had started her own business based on women’s safety.
Zara Campbell is CEO of Northern Ireland’s first ever security and self defense company, The secure courtyardwhich creates items that would help give women peace of mind that they would be safe in their daily lives.
Speaking to MyDerry, Zara said: “You only need one look at regional and national statistics on violence and sexual assault against women and marginalized genders to know there is a problem.
“Along with this, there were absolutely no markets or tools readily available to help young women and marginalized genders feel safe, reassured, or empowered to perform the mundane tasks that many of us are now afraid of. make.
“Until something changes on a much larger scale and more investments are made to actively eliminate misogyny, I want to be able to provide the products and tools to help individuals feel safe. and to prevent potentially dangerous situations from occurring.”
Zara wanted to act after her own experiences of sexism and harassment, as well as the increasing number of violent events targeting women, to create this self-defense company.
She says: “ I stumbled upon the idea after learning about the dangers of doing mundane tasks such as going for a walk and through my own experiences of sexual harassment when I left home to study.
“The stabbing of female students in Belfast was happening around this time and stories of doping in alcohol were on the rise again.
“Not only that, but the endless headlines of women across the UK experiencing misogynistic abuse made me feel terrified and I knew something more had to be done to make me feel safe.”
The Safe Yard offers a number of items for personal self-defense including a key fob alarm, beverage drinking test kit, extra door lock, and non-toxic criminal identification spray.
Since establishment The secure courtyard, Zara has seen her business grow and achieve her business goals sooner than she ever imagined.
Going forward, The Safe Yard will continue to keep women safe wherever they go.
While more needs to be done to address violence against women, there is comfort to be drawn from this woman-led, woman-centered vigilante endeavor that ensures women can feel safer wherever they are.
Zara said: “My goal for The Safe Yard is to help women feel safe in the world.
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“To do this I have a range of strategies and ideas in mind, something I would really like to do in the future is to help create educational programs that can be run in schools to help inform future generations.
“I do my best to provide products that could help prevent a potentially fatal outcome for someone, I created The Safe Yard because I want to help.”
The Safe Yard is located on instagram, Facebook and on their website.
For more information on Derry, visit our new MyDerry website.
