July 2023

19 Jul 2023

Posted at 13:29h in City of Joy, Newsletter, Uncategorized, V-Day

WE HAVE BECOME MAKERS OF CHANGE 23RD CLASS GRADUATES FROM THE CITY OF JOY On 23 June, City of Joy celebrated its 23rd graduation! 85 joyous women who have turned their pain to power. 1987 graduates to date. They are change makers returning to their villages, becoming businesswomen, teachers, journalists, non-profit leaders, artists, creators, following their dreams and vision. Congratulations to V-Day Congo Director and Co-founder/Director of City of Joy Christine Schuler Deschryver and the team at City of Joy and to all of the graduates! A REPORT ON THE GRADUATION: Since January, a group of 85 women survivors of sexual and gender-based...

17 Jul 2023

Posted at 17:11h in City of Joy

Since January, a group of 85 women survivors of sexual and gender-based violence have been sheltered at the City of Joy, the revolutionary center in the Democratic Republic of Congo, for training in emotional healing and leadership skills development. The graduation marked a breaking turning point, where after six months of training and healing, laughing and smiling, dancing and dressing wounds, and embracing and counseling, we could place our hopes in 85 women who, as one of them said, are needed to make change happen in the DRC. The 23rd class transformed their pain into power, releasing their suffering and investing in...

06 Jul 2023

Posted at 16:08h in Dispatches from Beyond Incarceration, V-Day

In a powerful display of solidarity and creative expression, participants from Right/Write to Heal New York traveled to Portland, Maine, to participate in the second annual "Abolition Night" at the STRAND THEATRE in Rockland, Maine. The Right/Write to Heal Initiative is a joint project of the Columbia Center for Justice and V-Day’s Beyond Incarceration Project. Through Right/Write to Heal, women share how they cope with the consequences of incarceration on themselves, their families and communities, with the goal of changing how people understand the impact of criminalization on women. Writing and storytelling are therapeutic interventions for people who have experienced loss...