V-DAY 2001 GATHERING TO END VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

KASAMA Vol. 14 No. 3 /July-August-September 2000 / Solidarity Philippines Australia Network

GATHERING TO END VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

26 September 2000

Dear Friends,

I am the Regional Coordinator of the Southeast Asian region (including Australia and New Zealand) for the V-DAY 2001 GATHERING TO END VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN. I am writing to introduce you to this exciting project, and invite you to take part in a global initiative to end violence against women.

V-Day is a movement to end violence against women. It is a vision of human life in which all women and girls live free, equal, safe and with dignity. The V-Day 2001 Gathering to End Violence against Women will be held on February 10, 2001 at Madison Square Garden, New York City, USA, and will bring together activists from around the world working to end violence against women. The Gathering is being hosted by the V-Day International Steering Committee, which is being facilitated by Equality Now and is comprised of twelve Regional Coordinators including myself, and a number of international organizations.

The Gathering will precede a gala V-Day 2001 performance and rally that will take place at Madison Square Garden that evening and will channel the media power of the performance into activism. Past V-Day performances have included such celebrities as Glenn Close, Clarista Flockhart, Whoopi Goldberg, Alanis Morisette, Rosie Perez and Susan Sarandon. This media attention will serve to distribute substantive information on violence against women around the world and support strategies to stop the violence. Our goal is to reach the world with one message: Violence against women must stop.

The Gathering will bring together activists from around the world to Madison Square Garden for a day of activism and strategizing to end violence against women. The V-Day 2001 Gathering to End Violence against Women will highlight/feature actions to stop rape. To this end, V-Day is seeking ideas for strategies to stop rape through a Stop Rape Contest. Information on the Contest follows. In addition, at this Gathering, activists will have a chance to share their experiences and to generate activism through campaigning activities such as letter-writing, petition-signing, and other demonstrations of protest.

V-Day 2001 is also seeking to articulate a Vision of the world without violence against women. To this end, please help us contact writer, musicians, artists and others in the region and encourage them to use their talents to end violence against women by sharing their creative visions of a world without violence.

As Regional Coordinator for the Southeast Asian (including Australia and New Zealand) region, I would appreciate your assistance in spreading the news about the V-Day movement in the region. As a global movement, V-Day seeks the involvement of as many women as possible from our region. Please also help me in representing our region at the Gathering with innovative entries to the Stop Rape Contest. I welcome your involvement in the V-Day movement. Please let me know if you would like to work with me on this initiative.

Thank you so much for your support. I look forward to sustaining my communication with you.

In sisterhood,

AIDA F. SANTOS
V-DAY 2001, Regional Coordinator for Southeast Asia, Australia & New Zealand

Aida F. Santos can be contacted at:

CATW-Asia Pacific
Suite 406, Victoria Plaza
41 Annapolis Street, Greenhills
San Juan, Metro Manila
Philippines 1105
Tel/fax (632) 927 5572 or fax (632) 722 0755
Email: afs@pacific.net.ph or catwap@skyinet.net (Attn: Aida F. Santos)

Alternatively, you can forward any mail to:

Bldg. 15 Unit 41, BLC
Road 3, Pag-asa, Quezon City
Philippines 1101

No woman or girl in the world is safe from rape. All women know the fear of rape, the threat of rape, and all too often the reality of rape.

The V-Day movement to end violence against women is a vision of human life in which all women and girls live free, equal, safe and with dignity. V-Day is reaching out to the world with one message: VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN MUST STOP. V-Day envisions and demands a world without rape.

October 2nd, 2000 V-Day will launch the STOP-RAPE Contest, a worldwide initiative designed to produce innovative and effective strategies to stop rape. The contest is open to women and girls of all ages, and the deadline for submission of action plans is December 31, 2000. Strategies can be unconventional, outrageous, funny, improvisational, daring - through the STOP-RAPE Contest V-Day hopes to bring new and creative energy to the worldwide campaign to end violence against women.

The contest will be judged by a team of twelve regional coordinators - all activists around the world working to stop violence in their communities. Sixty finalists will be chosen and invited to New York to attend the V-Day Gathering to End Violence Against Women, a day-long strategy session in New York on February 10, 2001, where their strategies will be presented and discussed. At the Gathering, three winning ideas will be selected by the regional coordinators and a concrete global action plan to stop rape will be formulated. Winners will have the opportunity to see their action plans implemented in their countries, supported by grants from the V-Day Fund.

The STOP-RAPE Contest finalists will also attend the gala V-Day 2001 performance and rally that will take place in Madison Square Garden on the evening of February 10, 2001. The inspiration for and creator of V-Day is playwright and director Eve Ensler whose play The Vagina Monologues sparked and continues to fire the V-Day initiative. V-Day performances have been and are being produced in countries around the world where, through laughter and tears, many women for the first time in their lives examine and openly express their intimate hopes, fears and emotional experience, defying common cultural taboos. Past V-Day performances have included such celebrities as Glenn Close, Desiree, Calista Flockhart, Whoopi Goldberg, Alanis Morissette, Rosie Perez and Susan Sarandon.

Through the V-Day 2001 Gathering to End Violence Against Women, V-Day is bringing together a new force to support coordinated global activism to end violence toward women. The Gathering is being hosted by the V-Day International Steering Committee, which is comprised of twelve Regional Coordinators from around the world and a number of international organizations. The Steering Committee is facilitated by the international women's rights organization Equality Now.

Keep updated by viewing http://www.equalitynow.org and http://www.vday.org