Happy V-Day! No, not Valentine’s Day. V-Day. V-Day is a global movement to end violence against women and girls. It was started in 1998 by writer and activist Eve Ensler, V-Day events involve performances of The Vagina Monologues, A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer, Any One Of Us: Words From Prison, screenings of V-Day’s documentary Until The Violence Stops, and the PBS documentary What I Want My Words To Do To You, Spotlight Teach-Ins and V-Men workshops, to raise awareness and funds for anti-violence groups within their own communities.
Soooooo much hotter than flowers and candy.
In a week where young girls were watching the Grammy Awards and tweeting that they’d let Chris Brown beat them up, and Hugh Hefner reacted to his son’s domestic violence arrest by saying that the young man and his girlfriend can “patch things up” it’s more important than ever that we all do our part to end violence against women and girls.
The UN estimates that 1 in 3 women will be physically or sexually abused in their lifetime. There are organizations all over the world providing services to protect women from rape and abuse and all of them require support in order to do their critical work. I choose to donate to My Sister’s Place, a local shelter for abused women. Organizations like this one always need money but they often ask for supplies such as clothing and toiletries as well. If you’re looking to purge your closet, think of donating to a women’s shelter: some woman just fled an abusive situation with only her kids and the clothes on her back and she could use your cast-offs and your kids outgrown clothing as well. Give what you can.
Together we can band together to end violence. We can. Happy V-Day.
Great post to raise awareness
As a young woman I was in a longterm abusive relationship, never knowing that I would survive and find real love later in life.
THANK YOU.
This is a wonderful opportunity to raise awareness of domestic and dating violence. And even better, an example of how to help.
Peace,
Rachel
Thank you for this post. Alot of girls and women don’t realize they are in an abusive relationship until it has escalated to a feeling of despair. Awareness must be taught and brought to the attention at an even earlier age, ie, the teen years. It is so important to know the signs even as a person who is close to the person being abused because sometimes the signs are well hidden.