Thread by @NeallM

I am part of the feminist collective @WomanchesterMMN and every year now we make a heart for each woman killed through male violence in the previous year.
In November 2019 we hung these hearts up on a washing line outside the central library in St Peter's Square in Manchester.

We asked passers by to take a heart to honour murdered women. We gave out flyers too and had many conversations with people who had no idea of the scale of male violence.
I spoke to one woman who knew one of the women we'd made a heart for. She took two hearts, one for herself

and one for the young woman's mother.
I spoke to a woman who said she had come within a hair's breadth of being another woman for whom we would have made a heart.
We talked and we cried together.

In November 2020 we were unable to do the same because of lockdown, and so we displayed the hearts on social media #HeartsForMurderedWomen and sent them out to people across the globe, from Mexico to the Isle of Man, and from one end of the UK to the other.

In return we asked for voluntary donations.
We sent the final two hearts out this weekend.
In total this year we raised £1639 and have been able to donate half of the money to @FemicideCensus and the other half to @tweet_tdas

Making the hearts, and holding these women in our thoughts is an emotional process and heavy work. It is very moving to be able to use that tribute to support these two vital organisations.