Violence against women and girls—in the family, in a relationship, at school, on the street, in the workplace, during war—still occurs regularly with impunity today. To right this wrong, V-Day partners directly with women’s organizations in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia working to end violence against women and girls in all its forms—changing minds, changing laws, changing lives.
V-Day is a global movement to end violence against women and girls. The organization was born in 1998 after early performances of Eve Ensler's successful play
The Vagina Monologues, when wave after wave of women sought out the playwright to relate their own experiences of violence. Today, through local community benefit productions of
The Vagina Monologues V-Day provides support around the world, raising and distributing funds to grassroots, national, and international organizations that work to end violence against women and girls. In 2004, 2300 performances were organized in 50 countries by volunteers in 1100 communities, raising $5 million. Since 1998, V-Day has raised over $25 million in total and generated powerful media coverage about violence against women and girls in each community.
Performances of
The Vagina Monologues are only the beginning. What comes next in these communities once the curtain falls at the end of the show? V-Day Africa, Middle East, Asia focuses on networking anti-violence activists and strengthening their local efforts strategically.
V-Day provides support in the form of:
- direct grants
- organizing regional and national conferences, workshops, and networks
- donating technical communications equipment
- leveraging corporate support
- knocking on the doors of state authorities
- generating media attention and visibility on the local and international issues of gender-based violence.
Middle East and North Africa - Karama Program
In each V-Day partnership, the emphasis is always on enabling women on the ground to address issues they have defined with solutions they have produced. In 2005, from V-Day’s new base in Cairo, Special Representative Hibaaq Osman launched the
Karama Program in the Middle East and North Africa. Karama is an Arabic word meaning dignity and self-respect, the essence of V-Day’s partnerships.
Over the next three years, V-Day will supply financial and technical support for the regional and national movements working to end violence against women and girls in the Middle East and North Africa, getting underway in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Algeria, Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia.
East and Southeast Asia - Global V-Day Campaign for Justice to ‘Comfort Women’
In Asia, August 2005 marks the 60th anniversary of the end of WWII. Given the 21st century’s escalating armed conflicts, impunity for wartime sexual violence persistently denies women their human rights. This is powerfully symbolized by the cry for justice of the former ‘comfort women,’ the estimated 200,000 civilians forced into sexual slavery by Japan’s military during the Asia-Pacific wars from 1931-1945.
The Global V-Day Campaign for Justice to ‘Comfort Women’ calls for an end to impunity for wartime sexual violence in both the past and the present. In partnership with survivors and activists from South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Taiwan, the Philippines, the Netherlands, and Timor L’Este, the Global Campaign culminated in simultaneous demonstrations in front of Japanese Embassies around the world on August 10, 2005. Celebrity performances of
The Vagina Monologues will be staged in Tokyo and Seoul to cap the campaign’s political pressure with press coverage. A petition with hundreds of thousands of signatures calling for Japan’s accountability will be presented to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. V-Day will top off the campaign with an International Spotlight on ‘Comfort Women’ at every V-Day 2006 benefit performance of
The Vagina Monologues held at hundreds of college campuses and community centers around the world.
Planned for 2007 – Consultations with women’s rights organizations from 23 countries to end violence against women in Africa.
