V-Day Blog Archive

Mayo Clinic’s Dr. Sean Dowdy Shares His Experiences At Panzi Hospital, DRC

For one week in November, five medical professionals from the esteemed Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN volunteered their time and resources to travel to Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where they worked closely with Dr. Mukwege at the Panzi Hospital. While there, the team offered exams, performed surgeries, provided necessary medical supplies and equipment, and gave educational lectures. Dr. Sean Dowdy, who practices gynecological oncology and obstetrics & gynecology at the Mayo Clinic, shared his experiences repairing the fistulas and other severe repercussions of the extreme violence being committed against the women and girls of the DRC:

Our first day at Panzi Hospital began at 6:45 during a brief, but heavy rain. Dr. Mukwege popped the clutch as we rolled down a hill to get the car started. The center of Bukavu includes a half-mile of paved road while the remainder of the 30-minute trip covered jarring muddy roads punctuated with enormous potholes. The weather cleared as we approached Panzi and as unbelievable as it sounds we saw a rainbow over lake Bukavu. I was quite impressed with the campus, a series of one-story buildings with well-kept landscaping and covered, stone walkways rather than mud. The hospital is clean with excellent ventilation and a near absence of odors despite the number of severely ill patients housed there. Most meaningful to me was the large outdoor space with thatched huts for the women with fistulas to gather with their children during the day, many of the patients with fistulas children themselves. The area is a walkout immediately outside and below the operating room. We spent the next 5 days in that operating room repairing fistulas, and I would frequently turn towards the windows and watch as the 50 or 60 women living there sang, cooked, collected water, played with their children, and waited patiently for their wounds to be repaired.

That first day at Panzi I examined a young women who had been subjected to unimaginable violations. I understand now the many reasons others who have visited DRC have avoided describing the details of what is happening to these women. For one, there are simply too many of them. Any description very quickly becomes a simple catalog of events like so many impersonal data points. And what has happened to them should not be allowed to overshadow all that they are and all that these young women and girls have the potential to become. Perhaps most importantly, having actually met these women, examined their wounds, and seen the blank eyes of those treated the worst, even then it has been difficult for me to process this and actually believe that these things are happening in the 21st century. How then to convey this to an audience that will never meet these women in person? There is a fine line between creating awareness and risking sensationalism that may not be believed, however true. And to not believe what is happening in DRC as I write this adds just another injustice to Bukavu.

And so on the return trip that first day at Panzi I reminded Dr. Mukwege of this particular woman, and told him how badly I wanted to help her. He admitted that when he sees cases like this he wonders why he is still in Bukavu. The first time he saw wounds such as this was in 2000, and he is still seeing them with regularity 10 years later. Dr. Mukwege and I did not know each other well, but we nonetheless shared the unspoken answer – how could he turn his back on these women? And I felt the same myself. Five days later it was time to go home, yet I was already planning for my return.

Each day began with an outdoor gathering of the patients and hospital staff for a brief sermon. I am not a religious person by any stretch, but I was nevertheless moved by these gatherings and the realization that their spiritual beliefs, their hardships, their work at Panzi, the ongoing war, and the poverty are all indistinguishable from one another, all wrapped up into the daily lives of the Congolese. On one of my more cynical days I might wonder how they could keep their faith in the face of everything they experience. But my reaction was one of admiration, even jealousy for their unending spirit, their fierceness, their ability to look ahead and continue on. I was amazed by what the physicians and nurses of Panzi are capable of despite the lack of resources. Even I was able to adapt, performing complex surgeries with foreign instruments amidst frequent brownouts. But at Panzi they overcome these obstacles on a daily basis, not just for a short week of their lives. There is no running water at the hospital, yet the patients and the facilities are clean. The roads are terrible, yet the employees are impeccably dressed, on time, and friendly without exception. And I began to imagine what they could achieve with running water, consistent electricity, the correct suture, improved instruments, improved anesthesia, or modern imaging like CT scans. I examined a 43 year old with inoperable cervical cancer. She could be cured if radiation and chemotherapy were available. With help we may not only heal the physical wounds, but also return souls to those blank eyes, souls capable of contributing to their families, their communities, indeed the world.

V-Day & SAFER Campus Accountability Project Launch Winter Break Challenge

In an effort to publish 400 policies by May 2011, V-Day and SAFER are launching The Winter Break Challenge to further build CAP’s Policies Database. The Winter Break Challenge asks students to register at www.safercampus.org and submit their school using CAP’s easy step-by-step policy review form. The database is utilized by student activists looking to make positive change on their campus, and also provides us with a wealth of information on the best and worst practices in sexual assault prevention and response at schools across the country. Only students can submit to CAP, but anyone can access the database by registering for free.

HELP kick-start real change on YOUR campus!

CONTACT:
Erin Burrows,
Campus Accountability Project Coordinator,
SAFER
(347) 465-7233, contact@safercampus.org

Susan Celia Swan
Managing Director, Communications,
V-Day
(917) 865-6603, susan@vday.org

New York, NY, December 1, 2010–College students are taking action to hold their schools accountable for making their campus communities safer. Students Active for Ending Rape (SAFER) and V-Day are proud to announce the success of the first year of student submissions to our online database of sexual assault policies from schools across the country. In an effort to publish 400 policies by May 2011, SAFER and V-Day are launching the Winter Break Challenge to further build the Campus Accountability Project (CAP) Policies Database as a tool for student-led movements to reform sexual assault policies. Currently, the CAP database houses 130 policies in an online, public and searchable database which details what colleges and universities are doing to prevent, reduce and respond to sexual violence on campus.

CAP publicly recognizes the successes of some schools’ sexual assault policies while also identifying gaps in others. Preliminary results show that an overwhelming majority (75%) of schools in the database provide 24-hour crisis services to survivors as well as security measures like campus blue lights and escort services. Policies are also largely inclusive of a diverse community–92% use gender neutral language and ensure access to resources for all students, regardless of sexual orientation, race or ethnicity. However, while 72% of the schools offer primary prevention programs to address the root causes of sexual violence, only 9% mandate student participation in such programs. Also, a mere 7% of schools in the database include a drug and alcohol amnesty clause for survivors of sexual assault and only 62% allow for anonymous reporting. Because fears of retaliation and feelings of shame and guilt are often barriers to reporting an assault, it is crucial that more schools adopt amnesty clauses and provide confidential and anonymous reporting options for survivors.

Beginning December 1, 2010, V-Day and SAFER are encouraging students to participate in the Campus Accountability Project during their winter break. The Winter Break Challenge asks students to register at www.safercampus.org and submit their school using CAP’s easy, step-by-step policy review form. We’re also asking students to encourage their friends and fellow activists at other schools to submit to CAP. The database is utilized by student activists looking to make positive change on their campus, and also provides us with a wealth of information on the best and worst practices in sexual assault prevention and response at schools across the country. Only students can submit to CAP, but anyone can access the database by registering for free. You can help kick-start real change on campuses nationwide by sharing this information and posting the Facebook event and Why Policy video on your wall and blog today!

About Students Active for Ending Rape (SAFER)
SAFER is a volunteer-run organization that has been training and supporting student activists for a decade. We offer comprehensive programming to support student-led movements for campus sexual assault policy reform. In addition to the CAP policies database, our website houses the Activist Resource Center, an online library of tools for organizers. We also run a national, in-person trainings program to help students kick-start policy reform campaigns and offer ongoing mentoring via the Activist Mentoring Program, (AMP!).

About V-Day
V-Day is a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls that raises funds and awareness through benefit productions of Playwright/Founder Eve Ensler’s award winning play The Vagina Monologues and other artistic works. In 2010, over 5400 V-Day benefit events took place produced by volunteer activists in the U.S. and around the world, educating millions of people about the reality of violence against women and girls. To date, the V-Day movement has raised over $75 million, crafted international educational, media and PSA campaigns, reopened shelters, and funded over 12,000 community-based anti-violence programs and safe houses in Democratic Republic Of Congo, Haiti, Kenya, South Dakota, Egypt and Iraq. In 2001, V-Day was named one of Worth Magazine‘s “100 Best Charities” and in 2006 one of Marie Claire Magazine‘s Top Ten Charities.

GIVE THE GIFT OF V-DAY FOR THE HOLIDAYS!

In this season of generosity, you can give to the world by giving to V-Day. Your tax-deductible V-Card or donation* will enable us to empower more local networks and change the lives of women and girls worldwide. With your support, we WILL end violence against women and girls

*December 31st is the last day to make charitable donations in order to claim them on your 2010 tax return. 86 cents of every dollar you give goes to ending violence against women and girls.

V-Day Holiday V-Card

A V-Card supports the worldwide movement to end violence against women and girls and is the perfect gift for the Holidays!

Make a donation to V-Day on behalf of your friends and loved ones. V-Day will send a specially designed holiday V-Card letting them know of their unique gift.

The V-Gift will be used to address the most critical issues of violence against women and girls around the world.

Click Here To Give This Gift >

READ Eve’s Latest “The Huffington Post” Article, “No More Rape”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eve-ensler/no-more-rape_b_787806.html
By EVE ENSLER

Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo — I have been back in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), for two weeks now meeting with leaders, activists, social workers, therapists, recent survivors, business owners, UN officials. There is good news and bad news. The bad news is that the situation on the ground remains the same if not worse. Just a few weeks ago more than 600 women were raped on the Congo-Angola border, and more than 15,000 women have been raped in Eastern Congo this year. The massacres and recruiting of child soldiers continue. The indiscriminate and random killings rage on.

The good news is that there is palpable change in the women. Just last month, the Women’s World March brought out thousands of Congolese women who vocally and proudly stood up for their rights. The women of Congo have broken the silence and are claiming their voices and vision. They are resilient and brilliant. They have huge dreams and ambitions (even if they are often muted by the massive trauma and violence). They are outspoken leaders and visionaries and they could and should lead Congo out of her misery. They are indeed building a movement. There is AFEM, a network of women journalists, run by Congolese women reporting on the war and daily news throughout the region. There are the Green Mamas, a collective of survivors who have planted fields of vegetables, and who are not only surviving off the profits, but bringing more and more women into the process. There are hundreds of local women’s groups creating businesses, building leadership, fighting for judicial reform, developing healthcare and education, and there is V-Day’s City of Joy, a revolutionary community for survivors of gender violence where women will turn their pain to power. It opens Feb. 4, and it is owned and run by the Congolese.

It is very clear now that those of us supporting from the outside need to listen and take direction from women on the ground. We need to be very careful that in our well-intended rush to help end sexual violence we don’t institutionalize victimization or create a self-sustaining and self-perpetuating business of rape. We need to keep the focus razor sharp on the root causes of the war, and not only on the consequences.

There are so many questions.

Why, when so many war criminals have been identified, have the vast majority of them not been arrested or held accountable? Why, after 13 years, are there still weekly massacres and thousands of rapes and former child soldiers being brought back into the militias when the world knows exactly what is going on? Who is invested in keeping it this way? Why is the UN spending $3 million a day on peacekeepers who are there to supposedly protect the women, but whose main contribution seems to be taking photographs of the devastated women after they’ve been raped? Why isn’t $1 million a day of that money going for training, paying, and feeding a Congolese army that in a very short time could be capable of purging the FDLR and protecting the borders of the Congo? Why are the failed (as the ICG recently stated) military strategies Kimia 2 and Amani Leo still being implemented by the Security Counsel and the Congolese government? Where is President Obama, who as a senator shepherded a piece of legislation, SB 2125, the Obama Democratic Republic of the Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act of 2006? There, he seemed to understand that “both the real and perceived presence of armed groups hostile to the governments of Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi continue to serve as a major source of regional instability and an apparent pretext for continued interference in the Democratic Republic of the Congo by its neighbors [Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi].” Why has he suddenly gone silent? Who changed his thinking? Why, when it is known that the war in Congo is an economic war fought over the mines and minerals, isn’t there monitoring in place of the flow of gold, copper and coltain by now? Why continue to do very expensive, elaborate and time-consuming UN reports without any follow up or enforcement of law? Why are we still arguing over the definition of genocide and femicide and spending fortunes counting the numbers of raped women rather than stopping the atrocities?

Here and now we actually need to end the rape. We need to say NO MORE. No more millions spent counting the raped and studying the raped. No more gratuitous rape interviews. (I think the Congolese women should declare a story strike.) No more gawking. No more tragic photographs of nameless black women. No more pity. No more feigning ignorance about the situation. No more minerals stolen out from under the people. No more raped and re-raped and re-re-raped. No more children born of rape. No more fistula. No more stigmatization. No more destroyed vaginas. No more brutalized wombs and bladders and colons. No more dead raped nine-month-old babies or 80-year-old mamas. No more money being spent on or made on rape. NO MORE RAPE.

Mayo Clinic Doctors Travel to Panzi Hospital and City of Joy Site in Bukavu, DRC for Medical Trainings and More

This week, Eve, V-Day Congo Director/Director of City of Joy Christine Schuler-Deschryver and Dr. Denis Mukwege welcomed five medical professionals from the esteemed Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN to Bukavu, DRC where they will work closely with Dr. Mukwege at the Panzi Hospital, offering exams, performing surgeries, providing necessary medical supplies and equipment, and giving educational lectures. While in Bukavu, they will meet with Eve and Christine Schuler Deschryver. Led by Deborah Rhodes, M.D., the Mayo team includes Philip Fischer, M.D., Sean Dowdy, M.D., Emanuel Trabuco, M.D., Doug Creedon, M.D., Ph.D., and Lois McGuire, R.N., C.N.P.

Our thanks to V-Day Board member Pat Mitchell, who also sits on the Board of Directors of the Mayo Clinic, as she connected Dr. Rhodes to V-Day’s work in the Congo. In addition, this unique international collaboration will be used as a platform to develop a plan for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester to provide ongoing interaction and assistance to Panzi Hospital and City of Joy.

V-Day is so thankful for the support of Dr. Rhodes and the dedicated Mayo Clinic team, and we invite you all to follow their ongoing blog from DRC, which will include interviews, videos, and photos from their trip.

LISTEN: Dr. Deborah Rhodes Talks About Mayo Clinic Trip To Panzi Hospital >

READ The Mayo Clinic Blog “Helping the Girls of the Congo”

Part One >

Part Two >

Part Three >

Part Four >

Part Five >

Part Six >

Part Seven >

Part Eight >

Part Nine >

Part Ten >

Part Eleven >

Part Twelve >

Part Thirteen >

LEARN MORE About V-Day’s Work in DRC >

VPERU, A Week Long Celebration To Take Place In Lima November 22 – 28

V-Day is proud to announce that VPerú will take place November 22 – 28 in the city of Lima. VPerú is a week long celebration of the importance of women that will reveal the strength and the courage of Peruvian women and girls, showcasing their talents and qualities through theatre, dance, workshops, art and seminars.

This event is just the beginning – VPerú is becoming a movement radiating its message of valor and equal rights at a national level, with the intention of founding an event backed by the foundation Mujer(es) Hermosa(s) [Beautiful Women] in order to assure all survivors of rape and gender violence the attention and opportunities necessary to move forward and thrive.

VPerú has created a special television spot. Translations available for English, French, Italian and German. WATCH here >

CHECK OUT The Full List Of VPerú Events here >

For More Information Visit vperu.org >

V-Day Celebrates Ten-Year Partnership With The European Women’s Lobby

On October 15, V-Day celebrated its decade long partnership with the European Women’s Lobby (EWL) by focusing on the future of V-Day movement and highlighting our newest program, V-Girls. As part of the EWL’s 20th anniversary celebration in Brussels in the atmospheric Brigittines cultural centre, excerpts from I Am An Emotional Creature were read by a wonderful team of Brussels based volunteers, and were enthusiastically received by an audience of activists, policy makers, artists and media from across Europe.

At the event, the EWL’s anniversary magazine “FEM21 – 21st Century Feminist” was launched, featuring an interview with Eve Ensler, and a book review of I Am An Emotional Creature – The Secret Life of Girls Around the World, written by V-Girls book club organizer Georgina Christou from Cyprus.

Cynthia Nixon and Eve Ensler at Let’s Breakthrough Together 2010 Gala

Cynthia Nixon and Eve Ensler at Let’s Breakthrough Together 2010 Gala from Breakthrough on Vimeo.

Eve Ensler. Let’s Breakthrough Together, Nov 2010

I just want to first say, Namaste – and how profoundly, profoundly grateful I am to be alive. Just need to say that, and voice that – the gratitude of life.

And I’m utterly moved by Cynthia, and Sam, and that performance, and their words, and … I love Mallika Dutt – I love Breakthrough – I love what this movement, this organization does. I love the creativity; I love the vision; I love the originality – I love Mallika’s bossiness, I love her passion; I love her refusal to take a ‘No’ – I love the way she keeps putting things in front of people whether they want to see it or not. She is what we call in V-Day a true Vagina Warrior – and has been fighting as long as I can remember for the invisible. For the people who matter deeply, but are unseen – who get dismissed, who get scapegoated, who get discarded: and those are the people we all should be fighting for, every minute of every hour of every day.

So I just want to honor her – her gorgeous ten years – and may there be … may there NOT be many more years. May we get to the point where we don’t have to keep fighting these fights; and triumphing over the desecration of human rights.

I just want to say – tonight, I put on this necklace – and it’s a necklace of Indian goddesses. And all through this experience, I feel like Indian goddesses have been directing me – Kali, particularly. Because when I went through chemo [therapy] I was given a really brilliant directive – which is to see the chemo not killing me, but killing the perpetrators, and the rapists, and the people who violate rights of people – and that when it would be over I would be clean, and my body would be clean. And it was a brilliant directive.

So – every chemo I had, I would Kali in front of me, and I would say, ‘OK – burn it off! – just burn it off’ – and it made me stronger, and it gave me a vision and a metaphor. And I want to say that … I just want to say one thing tonight, about kind of the coming together and the correlation between building a world where people are valued and are given their dignity and given their power, and given their rights … and sickness.

You know, we see cancer as this terrible, terrible thing that’s going to do us in, and kill us, and it can. It can – so can anything! But it can also be a huge opportunity to go deep in our souls, and to shed all that keeps us from each other, and keeps us from opening our hearts and living as vulnerable, open people so that each person we miss, enters us in a true way. So we can’t discard people, or ignore people – the man with his arm outstretched, or the women in Congo who are being raped – or the people who have a cholera outbreak, today, in Haiti. That we can’t ignore them – that they fill us, every moment, and compel us to act on their behalf.

So – I bless my cancer. Because it has broken down so much in me that kept me from you. And I hope all of you will continue to break all those things inside you that keep you above, or below, rather than ‘a part of’ – and I want to honor Mallika for building that world, and for building it with kindness, and heart, and depth, and courage – and I am with her forever on this journey, thank you all, very much.

Eve Ensler Picks The World’s Seven Most Powerful Feminists (Forbes)

http://www.forbes.com/2010/11/01/eve-ensler-vagina-monologues-opinions-p…

Forbes asks V-Day Founder/Artistic Director Eve Ensler to share her list of the world’s seven most powerful feminists:

It is actually an oxymoron to identify the world’s seven most powerful feminists–the exclusionary nature of that determination is a patriarchal construct in itself. Still, I simply couldn’t resist the chance to highlight the great and often invisible work of grassroots feminists. Driven to make sure the oppression they witnessed or experienced is not repeated, they are breaking the silence, speaking truth to power, exposing atrocities and reminding us that women’s rights are inherently connected to the future of our world.

A leading European feminist activist and thinker who was one of the architects of the Center for Women War Victims, which worked with Serbian, Bosnian and Croatian rape survivors throughout the Bosnian war, creating a safe place where women could refuse to be drawn into ethnic divisions so that their healing was possible.

Founder of The Tasaru Ntomonok Centre, a safe house for girls, is an African leader on the front lines of the fight to end the practice of female genital mutilation and early childhood marriage in Massailand. She has saved hundreds of girls from the cut, enabled their education, and created an alternative coming of age ritual, allowing a generation of girls to transition to adulthood with their bodies and spirits intact.

A powerful grassroots activist for women in the Congo, and the director of V-Day’s City of Joy–a revolutionary center for survivors of violence where pain is turned into leadership and power–she has been on the front lines for 13 years, fighting for women and girls in the rape capital of the world.

As President & CEO of the Paley Center for Media and the former head of PBS, Pat has blazed the trail for many women in media, all the while being guided by the propelling agent of her life–the need to move women forward in front of and behind the lens. She is the greatest connector of women across sectors, and will once again provide women a platform to dialogue about their roles as change agents, intellectual innovators, and idea champions as the producer of TEDWomen, scheduled for December 2010.

The co-director of AIDS Free World, former deputy executive director of UNICEF and the U.N.’s first Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, Stephen believes that women’s rights are inherently connected to the future of our world. Be it in the race against AIDS, or the fight against gender-based violence in conflict zones, Stephen champions women’s voices and perspectives and has spent his entire career helping to undo institutional patriarchy.

A writer and outspoken activist who, in the face of ongoing oppression of Afghan women, risked her life to courageously call out tyrannical warlords in the Loya Jurga and demand justice for the Afghan people. With great threat to her own safety, she has served in office and traveled the world to advocate for her country.

An environmentalist and leading thinker of our time, Shiva argues that women must be front and center in order to solve the issue of food security in the developing world. By integrating women, as both farmers and decision makers in places like India, Shiva’s writings have shown that a more sustainable, productive and efficient agricultural system is possible.

In Memoriam: V-Day Activist/San Diego City College Cast Member Diana Gonzalez

On October 12th, V-Day activist and The Vagina Monologues cast member at San Diego City College’s upcoming V-Day production, Diana Gonzalez, was found dead in a men’s room at the college’s downtown campus. Diana was 19-years old, studying to become a nurse and the mother of a 10-month-old baby girl. The main person of interest in the death is her husband Armando Gabriel Perez. In September, Gonzalez filed a police report accusing Perez of kidnapping her from the campus and repeatedly assaulting her while holding her captive in motel rooms for several days. Authorities jailed Perez, and the police department’s domestic violence unit investigated the case and forwarded it to the district attorney’s office, which declined to file charges citing “a lack of evidence.” Ms. Gonzalez recently obtained a restraining order against her husband, however it had not yet been served on him at the time of her death. Police are still searching for Perez.

All of us at V-Day are deeply saddened and outraged by this and our sympathies go out to her family and friends. Diana was a part of the global V-Day community and she will be sorely missed. Though it can be hard to move forward in difficult times such as these, Diana’s story serves as a sad and striking reminder of why we do this work, why ending violence against women and girls is so crucial for the future of our planet, and why raising awareness about the issue is integral. Diana is in our thoughts as we enter the 2011 V-Season, we continue to work every day in honor of Diana and the countless other victims and survivors, to keep women safe, until the violence stops.

How you can help: “Funds for the Daughter of Diana Gonzalez”
A scholarship has been established for Diana’s 10-month-old daughter. Check donations should be written to the San Diego City College Foundation; 1313 Park Blvd, San Diego, CA 92101. Please designate the name of the account for your donation. Donations can also be dropped off in the City College Student Accounting Office, A-114. FOR MORE INFORMATION >

NEWS: Husband, 37, hunted after teen wife’s slaying (MSNBC) >