V-Day Blog Archive

Rising to End Violence Against Women & Girls, Support the Movement on #GivingTuesday

Today on #GivingTuesday, we ask you to consider a donation to V-Day in support of our work around the world.

2016 was a revolutionary year for One Billion Rising, City of Joy & V-Day. As our work unfolded against a backdrop of violence, inequity, and patriarchy, the year was another poignant chapter in the evolution of our movement.

In breathtaking solidarity, grassroots activists pushed boundaries and engaged in dialogue through an intersectional lens, with art and activism at the forefront.

When you donate to V-Day, 90 cents of every dollar you give goes straight to ending violence against women and girls.

Your solidarity and support make the movement possible!

V-Day is a California 501(c)(3) public charity and is one of the Top-Rated organizations on both Charity Navigator and Guidestar.

DONATE online today >

READ the 2016 Annual Report Online >

With Thanks, the 2016 Annual Report: A Revolutionary Year for V-Day, One Billion Rising, & City of Joy

Dear V-Friends & Risers,

2016 was a revolutionary, evolutionary year for V-Day, One Billion Rising and City of Joy. Your solidarity and support made it possible!

As our work unfolded against a backdrop of violence, inequity, and patriarchy across the globe, the year was another poignant chapter in the evolution of our movement. We are so pleased to share our Annual Report, Rise For Revolution, with you. In these pages, you will see the work of global grassroots activists putting art and activism at the forefront, pushing boundaries and engaging in dialogue that holds everyone accountable to an intersectional lens. It is breathtaking.

Across 200 countries, One Billion Rising, the City of Joy and our V-Day College and Community benefit events made visible the volatile and often unseen connections between violence against women and economic, environmental, racial, and gender injustice on the grassroots level and in the media.

We formed new and lasting coalitions between existing groups and individuals, both throughout the women’s movement and also among the growing peoples’ movements covering diverse sectors. And we showed that there is nothing more powerful than global solidarity as it makes all of us safer in our outspokenness, braver in what we are willing to do.

The pages that follow are a glimpse into the change that took place on the ground, as well as where we are headed. Your generosity, trust and vision make our movement possible.

The report is available in an interactive online format.

CLICK HERE for the 2016 Annual Report –
ONE BILLION RISING: RISE FOR REVOLUTION >

We hope you will #RiseInSolidarity in 2017. We ask that you consider making a donation to support our work. Every donation you make ensures art and activism is at the core of our movement. Donate online at vday.org/donate.

THIS is the moment, be bold, be loud, be loving, BE BRAVE. Women will not be moved back. We will resist and push forward in a way that we’ve never done before. We are fighting on every front. Risings and escalations are taking place in direct response across the world from India to Poland to Texas, with artistic, creative, dance risings being planned daily and launches happening all over the globe.

Let 2017 be our radical, revolutionary uniting.

With deepest gratitude and V-love,
Eve, Susan, Christine, Monique, Shael, Colleen, Carl & Kristina

Support the global movement to end violence against women and girls.

DONATE to V-Day >

31 December is the last day to make charitable donations in order to claim them on your 2016 tax return. V-Day is a top rated charity on Guidestar and Charity Navigator.

TAKE ACTION

– LEARN about the One Billion Rising 2017 campaign >

– FIND an upcoming Rising in your community >

– REGISTER your event on the One Billion Rising map >

#RiseInSolidarity: Stand with Standing Rock Against State-Sanctioned Violence

(Photo by Adam Alexander Johansson)

The Water Protectors at Standing Rock are facing excessive violence and harassment by the police and state sanctioned forces in North Dakota.

Here is a report from Honor The Earth:

WATER CANNONS FIRED AT WATER PROTECTORS IN FREEZING TEMPERATURES, HUNDREDS INJURED Cannon Ball, ND– Hundreds of water protectors were injured at the Standing Rock encampments when law enforcement blasted them with water cannons in freezing temperatures Sunday evening. The attacks came as water protectors used a semi-truck to remove burnt military vehicles that police had chained to concrete barriers weeks ago, blocking traffic on Highway 1806. Water protectors’ efforts to clear the road and improve access to the camp for emergency services were met with tear gas, an LRAD (Long Range Acoustic Device), stinger grenades, rubber bullets, and indiscriminate use of a water cannon with an air temperature of 26 degrees Fahrenheit. Some flares shot by law enforcement started grass fires which were ignored by the water cannons and had to be extinguished by water protectors. Law enforcement also shot down three media drones and targeted journalists with less lethal rounds… – Thane Maxwell 41SC (21 November 2016)

Continue reading the full statement >

What You Can Do To Support The Water Protectors at Standing Rock:

Donate

You can send support to the camps in various ways – online, through PayPal, or by check.

Sacred Stone Camp
Via PayPal: sacredstonecamp@gmail.com
Donate Online

Mailing Address:
Sacred Stone Camp
P.O. Box 1011
Fort Yates, ND 58538

Sacred Stone Legal Defense
Via PayPal: freshetcollective@gmail.com

Donate Online

Mailing Address:
Please make checks out to “Freshet Collective” 3941 23rd Ave. S
Minneapolis MN, 55407

Send Supplies and Labor

Red Warrior Camp
Donate Online

Red Warrior Camp Legal Defense

Mailing Address:
Red Warrior Camp #2 Agency Ave
Fort Yates, ND 58538 United States

Help Build Makagi Oti – the Brown Earth Lodge – at Standing Rock! This is
a straw-bale community center and kitchen for the main encampment.

Support Honor the
Earth who are working in the area and working at the intersections of extractive industries and violence against women.

RISE UP

• Sign the petitions, continue to activate across social media
• Write Letters to the Editor
• Contact your elected officials
• Divest your money and explain why.
• Support indigenous groups who are leading the actions in your community, organize events in support.

Wherever you are, it is likely that people are organizing solidarity actions, mobilizing to stop fracking and other extractive projects in your communities.

RISE Against Racist Patriarchy

We are seeing the world occupied by racist, misogynistic, xenophobic leaders – fueled by the forces of neoliberal capitalism – and we must RISE against it.

We are fighting on every front. Escalations of Risings are taking place in direct response across the world from India to Poland to Texas, with artistic, creative, dance risings being planned daily and launches happening all over the globe.

Let THIS be our radical, revolutionary uniting.

THIS is the moment, be bold, be loud, be loving, BE BRAVE.

Women will not be moved back. We will resist and push forward in a way that we’ve never done before.

Sisters and women-loving men of the world UNITE.

Now more than ever IT IS TIME TO RISE.

RAGE, RISE, DISRUPT

STAGE a RISING in your community >

SEE the global launches already taking place and READ dispatches from around the world >

Documentary About City of Joy to World Premiere at DocNYC Film Festival

JUST ANNOUNCED! A new documentary film about the City of Joy is set to world premiere in New York City at the DocNYC film festival.

Synopsis: The film tells the story of the first class of girls at a remarkable center in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Directed by first time director, Madeleine Gavin, it tells of the visionaries who imagined a revolutionary place where women who have suffered horrific rape and abuse, learn to lead amidst a war driven by greed, economics and colonialism.

The film shares the unlikely friendship that develops when a devout Congolese doctor, Dr. Denis Mukwege, (2016 Nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize), radical playwright and activist, Eve Ensler, (Tony Award winning playwright of The Vagina Monologues) and a charismatic Congolese human rights activist, Christine Schuler Deschryver, (Director of the City of Joy) join forces to create this safe haven in the middle of violence-torn Eastern Congo, a place they call The City of Joy.

And it is the story of the incomprehensible power of the human spirit as we witness our characters’ discovery of hope, even when so much of what was meaningful to them has long been stripped away.

CITY OF JOY World Premiere at DocNYC Film Festival
November 11, 2016
7:00 PM
SVA Theatre, 333 W 23rd St, New York, NY 10011

PURCHASE Tickets to the World Premiere >

READ About City of Joy in DRC >

MORE About the Film >

Stage a Benefit Event in 2017 – V-Season is Now Open for Registration!

Let V-Season begin! This 2017 season brings us just one year away from the 20th anniversary of V-Day and it’s our fifth year of One Billion Rising. It’s a HUGE year for us to expand our outreach, amplify the voices of our sisters, and RISE.

In 2017, V-Day is shining a Spotlight on Violence Against Women In the Workplace. Violence against women at work takes place every day, in every country, across socio-economic levels, – from laborers to company executives, to waitresses and teachers, at-home mothers, nurses, farmworkers, factory workers, actors, domestic workers. The ONE BILLION RISING campaign continues in 2017 with the theme: Solidarity Against The Exploitation of Women.

This year, we invite you to platform the voices of women who are experiencing or fighting workplace violence, on your campus, in your town, in your city. If you are a woman in the workplace, stage The Vagina Monologues or A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant, and a Prayer at your place of work whether it’s a hospital, factory, office building or company. Bring your call for justice, safety and equality to these sites of violence through the plays. Call out impunity through a radical artistic production featuring women in your field. New this year, work with the women that have joined you to create a dialogue about the types of workplace violence they face, and through those conversations, invite them to write testimonials to be featured in your production as a part of the Spotlight. Learn more about this year’s Spotlight Campaign.

WATCH the new video: Solidarity to End the Exploitation of Women >

Beginning today, activists can register to produce a 2017 V-Day benefit production of “The Vagina Monologues” and/or “A Memory a Monologue, A Rant and a Prayer.”

The two artistic works will be available free of charge to registered activists hosting benefit productions solely during the month of February. By focusing the benefit performances during one month – February – we maximize the impact.*

Through V-Day campaigns, local volunteers and college students produce annual benefit performances of The Vagina Monologues, and A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer to raise awareness and funds for anti-violence groups in their communities. Through ten of thousands of communities and on college campuses, performances in over 140 countries, V-Day organizers have raised consciousness, changed laws to protect women and girls, funded rape crisis centers and domestic violence shelters (often times these much needed funds kept them from closing), educated their communities, and raised over $100 million in urgently needed funds for groups doing the essential work of ending violence and serving survivors and their families. Each year, thousands of V-Day benefit events take place produced by volunteer activists in the U.S. and around the world.

Amplifying New Voices: Since V-Day first began in 1998, many new and long term activists have begun to stage their own works reflecting the voices in their communities. If you would like to foreground new voices in the conversation around ending violence against women, we encourage you to do so by curating stories from your community and creating a new artistic evening that you present separately. Many organizers have done this, both instead of “The Vagina Monologues” and in addition to it. It’s a wonderful way to invite local writers, activists and artists to participate.

V-season is now open for registration! Head to the V-Spot to get registered for your February event. As always, please let us know at campaign@vday.org if you have any questions.

If you wish to perform the play in other months, you may purchase the rights from Dramatists Play Service. Performance rights information can be found at www.eveensler.org/plays.

ABOUT V-DAY:
Our work is grounded in 4 core beliefs:

• Art has the power to transform thinking and inspire people to act
• Lasting social and cultural change is spread by ordinary people doing extraordinary things
• Local women best know what their communities need and can become unstoppable leaders
• One must look at the intersection of race, class, and gender to understand violence against women

*Women and girls is an inclusive term reflecting all those who were assigned and/or identify as female.

Field Update from Dolphin Anti-Rape Activists In Kenya

The following report was sent by self-defense teacher and cofounder of Dolphin Anti-Rape, Duncan Bomba, seen here training a local woman:

“I cant wait to share the report we got from Olchoro in Narok County where a lady by the name Lesana K. saved herself from two attackers on her way from Narok Town. The local women community leader called us to tell us the good news. Using her powerful elbow to hit the guy who had grabbed her from behind she was able to get away as the other guy disappeared from the scene.

The strategies have taught women and girls to be daring enough to save themselves from such perpetrators. We thank V-Day a lot for supporting this work. Because of V-Day the woman is a hero and victor against rape.”

Since their creation in 1998, Dolphin Anti-Rape has led the way to prevent sexual violence in Nairobi, Kenya. As a grassroots NGO, their small team has delivered life-saving sexual violence prevention education to over one million teachers, students and community members.  V-Day and One Billion Rising have supported the ongoing and growing work of the founders and team leaders, Winnie Anyango and Duncan Bomba Omwani Papa Omundu Umundu since 2001.

Their training model concentrates on prevention education for schools, churches and women’s groups through communication materials on sexual violence and HIV/AIDS prevention; lesson modules on medical and legal assistance for sexual violence survivors, and information of Kenya’s sexual offense law. But ultimately their goal is to teach students to identify sexual violence and utilize self-defense skills to protect themselves.

SUPPORT Dolphin Anti-Rape & AIDS Control outreach, self-defense workshops, and HIV/AIDS education.

Click here to DONATE >

Photo Blog: The PWCE Educational Center in Kabul Finishes Another Round of their Curriculum for Women and Girls

Following is an update from a grassroots activist at Promoting Women Capabilities by Education in Afghanistan about their revolutionary educational center. LEARN more about the center’s program, READ about their Rise for Revolution event:

Thanks to your support and financial help another six months of the curriculum has come to an end in our educational centre in Kabul, Afghanistan. We have successfully taught our english, computer, science and literacy courses. We also regularly held our seminars on different critical issues.The latest seminar of this week was about forced marriage and child marriage. The area where our centre is located suffers from this problem, i.e. forced and child marriage, and the girls are constantly complaining about it.

The students are studying with great passion and interest and every day taking huge leaps forward on learning. Despite the worsening security situation, the centre is a hope for Afghan girls. We witness this truth every single day.

Once again heartfelt thanks from all the girls who are benefiting directly from V-Day’s meaningful and practical support.

Statement From V-Day DRC Activists On Recurrent Massacres Of The Population of Beni In North-Kivu

We, V-Day DRC activists, (V-Day – the global movement to end violence against women and girls), and militant defenders of human rights – are shocked as we grieve for the direct and indirect victims of the massacre of innocent civilians in Beni (deep in North-Kivu in DRC). We are concerned, enraged and saddened by deadly attacks in the region.

Thus, we herewith denounce the umpteenth massacre against innocent populations in Beni, as well as the guilty and shameful silence of the national, provincial and local leaders.

We are shocked that even after being killed, the bodies of the unfortunate people are piled up, tied, and superposed on each other and transported under inhumane, degrading conditions;

We are disheartened to see that since the beginning of the killings in this region of the DRC in 2014, no major action has been taken to prevent the tragedy and to protect the population;

We say, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

We demand:

1. That the government clearly identify the perpetrators and puppeteers of the genocide and hold them accountable.

2. That the government of the DRC takes its responsibilities by expelling all foreign armed groups who plunder eastern DRC and massacre our countrymen- from the national territory .

3. That the UN Security Council order the MONUSCO to apply Chapter 7 of its mandate pertaining to the action with respect to threats to the peace, breaches of the peace, and acts of aggression and to make Resolution 2098 establishing the Intervention Brigade within the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) a reality.

V-Day DRC Activists have deep feelings of horror, pain and turmoil for the homicidal events that the populations have gone through in Beni. Our heartfelt sympathy goes out to the wounded, the victims, and all aggrieved families.

V-DAY DRC

Bukavu, August 16, 2016

READ more on the most recent of the horrific attacks:

Scores ‘hacked to death’ in machete attack in DR Congo in Al Jazeera online

At least 30 killed in DR Congo massacre in FRANCE 24

#StopYazidiGenocide Images of Solidarity Coming in from Around the Globe!

Images are already coming in from around the globe including The Philippines, Swaziland, Taiwan & the UK. Join us, show your solidarity!

This Wednesday, 3 August, in solidarity with Yazda, One Billion Rising calls on the world to show solidarity for Nadia Murad and the thousands of Yazidi women and girls sold and captured as sex slaves – and call for the immediate release of the captured 3,000 Yazidi women.

WE CALL ON THE WORLD TO HONOR THE GENOCIDAL ATTACK ON SINJAR TWO YEARS AGO. WE AS A GLOBAL COMMUNITY MUST KEEP THEIR STORIES AND THEIR SITUATION VISIBLE WITH THE STRENGTH OF OUR SOLIDARITY.

ORGANIZE SOLIDARITY EVENTS AND ACTION IN YOUR COMMUNITIES.

Here are some suggested actions:

• Marches. Vigils. Walks. Solidarity videos and photos

• Show your solidarity online on social media. Let’s fill the globe online with our support for our Yazidi sisters and our demand for justice for them.

• USE THE HASHTAG: #StopYazidiGenocide

Background:

This Wednesday, 3 August marks the two-year anniversary of the brutal attack of the Yazidi people in Sinjar Province in the Northern region of Iraq, Two years since IS or ISIL (also known as ISIS or Daesh) stormed towns, villages, and historic homelands of the ethno-religious group, killing over 5,000 men and elders, enslaving over 7,000 women and children and displacing over 400,000 more. Two years since the humanitarian crisis in which thousands of internally displaced Yazidis were trapped on Sinjar Mountain, surrounded by Isis fighters determined to exterminate the indigenous group, dying of exposure and dehydration. Two years since the ongoing genocide of the Yazidi people began, including the desecration of homes, holy sites and women’s bodies.

The recently published Chilcot report in the UK, which revealed that former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, and his major allies – including former US President George Bush had illegally waged war in Iraq in March 2003 and militarily occupied it – further reiterates the connection that the Iraq War contributed to the rise of IS or ISIL in the region.

Nadia Murad is a 23-year-old victim of Isil’s crimes in Iraq and one of the thousands of Yazidi women who were abducted and enslaved by IS or ISIL. She was brutally raped by more than 12 members over a period of three months and was among the more than 5,000 Yazidi women taken captive when IS or ISIL swept through the group’s communities in Northern Iraq. After her escape, Nadia spoke out about her horrific experiences at the hands of IS or ISIL fighters to draw attention to the ongoing genocide. She has described how she and other young women were forced to pray before they were raped, and how they were treated as they were bought and sold like “sabia” – slaves.

“We were not worth the value of animals. They raped girls in groups, They did what a mind could not imagine. They commit rape and genocide crimes in the name of Islam. When they took me to Mosul to rape me, I forgot about my mother and brothers. Because what they were doing to the women was more difficult than death” – Nadia Murad

RISE ON 3 AUGUST WITH SOLIDARITY ACTIONS TO HONOR THE GENOCIDAL ATTACK ON THE YAZIDI COMMUNITY – SO THAT IT WILL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN!

RISE TO DEMAND THE RELEASE OF THE CAPTURED 3,000 YAZIDI WOMEN!

Read more about the action >