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The City of Joy’s 11th Class Graduates:
89 Women Join 849 Others
By Christine Schuler Deschryver
City of Joy and V-Day Congo Director
Since January 18th, City of Joy sheltered 89 women who have survived some of the harshest stories in the world. These women came from many villages of North and South Kivu provinces of DRC. Their quest was to transform their pain to power. During the transformation process, they had time to tell their stories, to dress their wounds and build their capacities. It was such a journey of healing, one that invited each woman to tell the truth about what she went through, to use what she had been through to fuel a revolution, and to decide to stop waiting to be rescued. Along the stay, 89 women went through therapy for their emotional healing and through capacity building training so that they leave the program as change makers.
From the first month to the last, each woman had enough time to assess and share how she was moving from a survivor to a leader. She was able to tell how strong she had become so that she could go back to her community and make change, beginning with her nuclear family. For example, some women took up space and shared how they will denounce early marriage and any case of rape (and other unpunished offences) which many people – especially local authorities – deny and minimize in their communities.
During this session, City of Joy was visited by some of our past graduates who came back to support and encourage their sisters who were on their way to changing and healing. Most of the women came without being invited. They came spontaneously to greet their sisters and share about how they are doing business or running self-help activities for their economic independence. Some others came to share how they joined Village Savings and Loan Associations with the aim to save with other people and take small loans from those savings. They invited 11th class women to do the same activities, which will provide simple savings and loan facilities as many communities do not have easy access to formal financial services.
The graduation day was the celebration of victory over past trauma. It was a day during which each woman declared being healed and transformed. It was a day of femininity. It was a day of happiness and fierce brilliance. Among the invitees were Panzi Foundation staff members, City of Joy graduates and neighbors of City of Joy. The organization of the graduation ceremony was the initiative of 89 City of Joy graduates. They wished to organize a fashion show to show how elegantly they can now walk – not as they used to do when they were carrying the burden of trauma in their communities. They wished to perform scenes to show how the training in nutrition, communication, gender rights, conflict resolution, etc. helped them in their healing process and how they will prove their activism in their communities.
Separation made the community of City of Joy shed tears. Everybody regretted knowing people with who they had already created bonds of sisterhood and love will move forward for another mission. Graduates also declared they will miss the love, warmth, peace and other benefits of City of Joy. But the thrill of each woman to go and join her community to lead was promising and bold.
We are proud to share some stories of graduates who joined their sisters on graduation day. These graduates of former classes came to tell the audience and the 11th class women the impact of City of Joy on their life. Two gave testimonies. The first said how she put the ingredients of the training into practice when she decided to go back to university and to graduate nursing after three years. She is now healing people. She legally married a man who fell in love with her and is coordinating the activities of about 20 graduates in Goma who own their farm and grow Irish potatoes that they supply to City of Joy. She also insisted that all these achievements could not be possible if City of Joy did not benefit her and if she did not accept to release her past trauma.
The other graduate talked about her success since she rejoined her village and how differently she lived before the City of Joy. She talked about how she lived as a survivor before she came to City of Joy and about her anger and trauma. She explained how she initially hated her child who resulted from rape. She also explained how she was able to connect to her child because of what she gained at City of Joy. She explained how she is working in the V-World farm and earns a living with her salary.
Bukavu, June 20th, 2017
Photo Credit: Carlos Schuler
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Photo Credit: Paula Allen
With your support, in regions throughout Congo, the City of Joy will purchase plots of land for collectives of graduates. By working this land, their land, these women will increase their financial independence.
DONATE TODAY, visit vday.org/planting
Together we are healing the earth, turning Pain to Power to Planting. JOIN US!
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Celebrate Mother’s Day by supporting the movement working to end violence against women and girls. Make a donation to V-Day & One Billion Rising on behalf of your mother, friends, and loved ones, and V-Day will send the specially designed 2017 Mother’s Day V-Card of your choice letting them know of your unique gift in their honor.
CLICK HERE send a Mother’s Day card and donation >
To send a V-Card on the donate page, check the box next to “Would you like to send an eCard?” labeled “Yes, I would like to send a V-Day e-card,” choose the design you would like to send, and fill in the rest of the information to finish designing your gift.
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Women workers around the world called for rights, justice, respect and dignity in the workplace on International Workers Day. One Billion Rising in Solidarity Against the Exploitation of Women stands firmly in support of these calls, from the #WomenWorkersRising coalition campaign to local grassroots led initiatives in communities worldwide. READ about the Risings on the OBR blog:
#MayDay Philippine Workers Rising >
Migrant Domestic Workers Rising in Hong Kong on May 1 >
Justice for Domestic Workers Rising in the UK for May 1 >
LEARN more about the Women Workers Rising Initiative and how to get involved >
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On 8 March, working women from multiple sectors rallied at the United States Department of Labor in a show of unity, demanding that women workers be seen, heard, and treated with dignity. The energetic and artistic event gave birth to the ongoing Women Workers Rising initiative dedicated to amplifying our demands for end to workplace violence and harassment and to promote pay equity, one fair living wage, paid leave, and labor rights at work. The coalition has just launched a new website, an online platform lifting up women workers across the wider resistance narrative featuring videos, images, social media content, upcoming events and actions and more.
Call for Stories for our Next Large Artistic Activism Undertaking
![RISEmeme_Instagram3[1].jpg](/node/bbimages/RISEmeme_Instagram3_1_.jpg)
If a single story has the power to change our hearts and minds, our collective stories have the potential to change the course of history. Imagine the stories of women nurses, teachers, restaurant workers, domestic workers, retail workers, garment workers, farmers, and more shared together, in communities around the world with a collective message; a demand for safe, fair, equitable and dignified places of work.
By creating a living archive of voices of women workers we hope to capture and share the fullest version of the collective story, so we encourage all women (cis, transgender, and gender non-conforming) to share their stories of the experiences of women workers and their struggle for justice in the workplace. Stories that address the need to end workplace violence, pay inequality, unfair labor practices and paid leave policies, and lack of access to a livable wage, as well as stories of joy, celebration, pride, and success in the workplace.
SHARE your story >
VISIT the website >
WATCH Women Workers Rising video series >
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“This film is a clarion call for activists everywhere. For that reason and for the joy of seeing women who have come through the powers of darkness with resilience to have embraced the light of love, this is a moving, uplifting must-see film.” – Five out of Five Star Review in Blogcritics
Continuing its film festival tour across the US and the world, CITY OF JOY recently picked up two new awards – the Best Documentary Award at The Newport Beach Film Festival, the Jury Award for Inspirational Filmmaking at the Arizona International Film Festival.
Upcoming Screening:
Workers Unite Film Festival in NYC
Thursday, May 11
7:30 PM – 9:00 PM
PURCHASE tickets >
FOLLOW the Film Online & on Social Media
Website: www.cityofjoyfilm.com
Facebook: @cityofjoyfilm
Twitter: @cityofjoyfilm
Instagram: @cityofjoyfilm
LEARN more about City of Joy, the revolutionary revolutionary leadership center for women survivors of violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo at the heart of the film >
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“But this morning as I awoke to the softness and generosity of Spring, it was so clear and simple. Every struggle we have – women’s liberation, racial justice, economic inequality, immigration rights, gender rights, disability rights – happens on the Earth, because of the Earth. Every drop of food, the water we drink, allows us to continue those struggles. All the stars and trees and mountains and oceans and beauty inspire us to keep at those struggles and become more strategic and visionary in those struggles.” – Eve Ensler
READ Eve’s new piece on the connections between the exploitation of the earth and women’s bodies – “This spring, fight for our precious planet and join the climate march” in The Guardian
Since its inception, One Billion Rising has been connecting the dots between multiple systems of oppression that escalate, exacerbate and profit from violence against women, including the extractive industries of oil and gas, militarized neo-colonial and corporate “development”, and the poising of our global food and water and eco systems. Through the lens of One Billion Rising for Justice and One Billion Rising Revolution activists continue coming together to address the issue of how climate change and environmental plunder aggravate the situation of women, especially in developing countries and in poor communities around the world. People all over the world joined the Risings in many countries to demand and end to violence against women and girls, by looking at policies that pillage, devastate and destroy the environment in the name of “development”.
Development aggression, and global ecological disasters directly related to corporate expansion, capitalist greed, unending extraction, production, over consumption and waste, and how these directly affect women and girls, became the primary focus of many Risings. The global climate crisis continues to affect communities around the world, but women and girls suffer the most in terms of long term loss of livelihood, forced migration, trafficking and other climate related conflicts. Indigenous populations everywhere have also suffered gravely – displaced and forced to flee and relocate – making them the world’s first climate refugees.
Rising for Climate Justice and Mother Earth is a call for justice against the aggressive greed and global exploitation of nature and people that deepen the inequalities in wealth and power. It is a call to restore dignity, integrity and respect towards Mother Earth and to all people of the world, particularly women and girls, who have been equally violated by policies and programs that cause environmental degradation and plunder.
Which is why we are joining the collaborative efforts mobilizing around the world on 29 April for the People’s Climate Movement. Under the banner “We Resist, We Rebuild, We Rise” hundreds of thousands of people around the world are gathering in communities to “resist attacks on our people, our communities and our planet.”
One Billion Rising activists are already planning to participate and platform the connections of climate justice and the movement to end violence against women and girls. From supporting the women of Standing Rock, to indigenous tribes in the Philippines RISING to protect their motherlands, to hosting Green, healing, and replenishing RISING events in Congo, New Mexico, and Gambia, our struggles for justice, equity, and a planet free from violence are connected.
RISE for Climate Justice and Mother Earth on 29 April – Find an action or march in your community >
#Rise4MotherEarth
#Rise4ClimateJustice
Take a look back on previous Climate Justice RISING events and actions:
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Join Tony Award–winning playwright and activist Eve Ensler and renowned legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw lead a revolutionary conversation and offer strategies for surviving the current political climate as antiracist feminists. Using the intersectional, inclusive framework at the heart of campaigns like Say Her Name, Why We Can’t Wait, and One Billion Rising, these two feminist icons address some of the most urgent questions facing our nation. The event will also be streamed live, availble to watch online here >
Date/Time: Thursday 11 May, 7:30pm
Location: Billy Wilder Theater
Ticketing: All Hammer Programs are Free. Tickets are required and available at the Box Office one hour before the program. General admission tickets are available one per person on a first come, first served basis following member ticketing. Early arrival is recommended.
LEARN more about the Hammer’s Bureau of Feminism initiative >
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Congratulations to the CITY OF JOY Documentary Film which has recently won two awards!
In Cleveland, the film was awarded The George Gund Foundation’s Standing Up Award at Cleveland International Film Festival. Focusing on “films with a conscience,” Standing Up celebrates films with a focus on activism and the fight for social justice and is voted on by the festivals audience. At the Ashland Independent Film Festival it won the AUDIENCE AWARD.
The film continues with upcoming screenings Newport Beach, Tucson, and New York City. For up-to-date event announcements, follow City of Joy Film on Facebook.
CITY OF JOY follows the first class of women at a revolutionary leadership center in Congo, weaving their journey with that of the center’s founders (2016 Nobel Peace Prize nominee Dr. Denis Mukwege, women’s rights activist Christine Schuler-Deschryver, and writer and activist Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues) – three individuals who imagined a place where women who have suffered horrific rape and abuse can heal and become powerful voices of change for their country.
A story about the resilience of the human spirit, CITY OF JOY witnesses Congolese women’s fierce will to reclaim hope, even when so much of what was meaningful to them has been stripped away. WATCH the CITY OF JOY teaser >
CITY OF JOY Film Screening Schedule Includes:
Newport Beach Film Festival
Sunday, April 23 – 7:30 PM
Thursday, April 27 – 5:30 PM
» Purchase Tickets & Passes
Arizona International Film Festival
Tuesday, 25 April – 6:00 pm
» Purchase Tickets & Passes
Workers Unite Film Festival
Thursday, 11 May – 7:30 PM
Tickets Purchase Link Coming Soon
MORE Dates & Locations to be Announced
FOLLOW the Film Online & on Social Media
Website: www.cityofjoyfilm.com
Facebook: @cityofjoyfilm
Twitter: @cityofjoyfilm
Instagram: @cityofjoyfilm
LEARN more about City of Joy, the revolutionary revolutionary leadership center for women survivors of violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo at the heart of the film >
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Communities around the world are continuing to RISE, reflecting on their 2017 events, and mobilizing for upcoming actions and events. The One Billion Rising News & Blog serves as the hub for incoming updates, images, and video. Take a look at recent entries:
European Women’s Lobby One Billion Rising 2017
Youth Rising in Tucson, AZ
One Billion Rising Togo 2017 Report with Videos
One Billion Rising South Asia Newsletter, March – April 2017
One Billion Rising Swaziland 2017 Report
