Darlington restaurant doing their part in tackling violence against women and girls
It's 10 years today since the Ask for Angela initiative was launched
A Darlington restaurant's hoping to encourage others to do their part in tackling violence against women and girls.
It comes as today marks 10 years since the 'Ask for Angela' was launched for bars, clubs and venues. The initiative allows people to discreetly request help from staff if they feel at risk.
Zak Ahmed is from Babul's in Darlington and he said: "What if you go on a date? You're usually going to go to a restaurant for a date and if you need to leave, or you feel uncomfortable about it, how do you deal with that without storming off or something like that? I think for that comfort for a lot of people to be able to go on blind dates or these days with Tinder you don't really know who you're meeting.
"You could end up at a date, sit at a table, and they might not be who they say they are or they look different to their photos; You wouldn't be comfortable and you'd want to be out of the situation and not have to worry about being followed or something like that.
"It's our duty, including my own, to go and research these things; how do we keep our business, our restaurant, a safe environment not only for the staff but for everybody who comes through the door? Initiative like this helps businesses like ourselves to meet those criteria and be a safe place.
"Our staff are aware of the initative and they also have training to spot when somebody's uncomfortable and go over, break a certain conversation when required, or if somebody's raising their voice, regardless of what gender you are it's like if somebody's uncomfortable we'll go over and try and break that position there.
"One of our female managers came over to me and said 'the lady over there really seems uncomfortable and the man looks like he's being a bit aggressive.' She went over there, asked if everything's OK, and when the man went to the bathroom, she went over to the lady and said 'look, are you OK? Do you need anything from us?' And she said 'no, no, everything's fine. That's just him, he talks a bit loud.'"