NEWS & BLOG - V-Day - Page 2
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NEWS & BLOG

RIGHT/WRITE TO HEAL'S INSPIRING JOURNEY TO THE BEYOND THE BARS CONFERENCE IN NAIROBI V-Day’s Beyond Incarceration project continues to amplify the experiences of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women. In her latest in the ‘Dispatches from Beyond Incarceration’ blog series, Roz Smith, V-Day’s Beyond Incarceration project manager, writes about her experience traveling to Nairobi for the Beyond Bars conference with the Right/Write to Heal Initiative, a joint project of the Columbia Center for Justice and V-Day. Roz takes us inside the conference writing, “In the heart of Nairobi, from November 30th to December 1st, the Beyond the Bars conference became pivotal for advocates,...

It's a struggle that's hard to put into words, and it feels like no one truly comprehends or shares in our pain. Sitara (not her real name) is in her 30s with two children. She owned and managed a beauty salon in Herat, Afghanistan and her personal journey highlights the enduring hardships faced by the people of Afghanistan over the past four decades of war and instability. I couldn't attend school, never experiencing a typical childhood due to the constant presence of war. Eventually, my family and I were forced to flee to Pakistan as a result of the ongoing conflict. Unfortunately,...

Samina, (not her real name) ran a gym in Herat, Afghanistan and has two teenage daughters. Below is her story: Around 14 years ago, a friend and I decided to invest in a gym for women and girls. The concept of a gym, especially for women, was relatively new in Afghanistan, but we believed it was a great idea. We saw it as a way to empower women to prioritize their health, fitness, and embrace self-love. Unfortunately, our culture has never really encouraged women to focus on themselves; they are often expected to solely serve their husbands and children. So, we thought...

Samia, (not her real name) in her 20s, with tearful eyes, reflects on how her life drastically changed two years ago. She comes from a family where her mother used to work for an NGO, and her father was employed at a bank. At that time, she was pursuing a career in journalism while her sister was in her third year of medical school, and her younger brother attended school. Two years ago, their lives took a distressing turn when women were prohibited from working, leading to their mother losing her job. Samia and her sister were also banned from continuing...

JOIN US, RISE IN 2024 As we write, One Billion Rising coordinators and activists and communities are planning hundreds of rising events, festivals and actions around the globe. They are escalating the call to #RiseForFreedom in response to the ongoing intensification of violence – rape, hate, exclusion, killing, discrimination, exploitation, abuse, wars, division, occupation and control. In response to the rapid rollback of rights to their bodies, minds and resources amidst the growing and unprecedented spread of fascism devastating our freedoms. Rise For Freedom is defining and reclaiming what FREEDOM means within solidarity, democracy, safety, equality, dignity and justice, and in the context...

WHEN THEY LEFT CITY OF JOY, EACH WOMAN LEFT WITH HER KEY, THE KEY TO HER LIFE: 2069 WOMEN HAVE GRADUATED FROM THE CITY OF JOY TO DATE Update from Christine Schuler Deschryver, Director of V-Day Congo and Co-Founder/Director of City of Joy Director: This week in Bukavu, 82 women graduated from the City of Joy. The six months of leadership training and healing from post-traumatic stress disorder served as a headlight that shone through the darkness created in each woman’s life. After her physical and mental destruction from an environment haunted by discrimination, subordination, patriarchy, religion, and culture, everything seemed hopeless. In our communities,...

UNTIL THE VIOLENCE STOPS V-Day is a movement that has worked for decades in war zones in places like Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq and Sudan. We have been invited into regions that are typically ignored and made invisible to the western world, and - together with our sisters and survivors on the ground - have seen firsthand what war does to women and women's bodies, what it does to men, what it does to communities regardless of race, religion or geography, and what it does to our collective humanity. We know how rape and...

As our 25th anniversary year draws to a close, we are filled with gratitude for this unique, ever-changing, and stunning movement. V-Day and One Billion Rising activists once again shattered traditions and created spaces for grassroots dialogue, with art and activism always at the forefront. They rose for gender, climate, economic, and racial justice and against a wave of war, right-wing nationalism, white supremacy, colorism, fascism, xenophobia, misogyny, femicide, homophobia, transphobia, corporate greed, and climate destruction, centering their voices and experiences of the most marginalized. During the ten-year anniversary campaign, ONE BILLION RISING GLOBAL COORDINATORS and teams worldwide staged over 1,200 art...

For over 25 years, V-Day’s work to end violence against women, gender expansive people, and girls has been situated at the intersection of ending war, racism, colonialism, imperialism, occupation, and climate injustice. Over our decades of work, we have stood in solidarity with women suffering the consequences of war in Bosnia, Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kosovo, Iraq, Sudan, and Haiti. We know that war has a particularly deadly and disproportionate impact on women and children. We believe in a feminism that liberates all people from racist, capitalist, patriarchal terror. War is a tool of patriarchal violence and doesn’t solely dehumanize women but...

Conflict and escalating violence have displaced 6.9 million people in the Democratic Republic of Congo – a record high number that has impacted all 26 provinces of the country. According to the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM), 81% of internally displaced peoples live in Congo’s eastern region, which has been engulfed in a brutal proxy war for minerals for over 25 years. This displacement increases the prevalence of sexual violence, disease and hunger. Millions have died, and hundreds of thousands of women and girls have been raped and sexually tortured. These crimes are committed with near total impunity and, despite...