V-Day

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the movement to end violence against females. For the end of World War II in Japan, see VJ Day. For the end of World War II in Europe, see VE Day.

The V-Day Logo

V-Day is a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. V-Day is a catalyst that promotes creative events to increase awareness, raise money and revitalize the spirit of existing anti-violence organizations.

The V-Day movement has grown throughout the world to include 81 countries from Europe to Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, and all of North America. V-Day, a non-profit corporation, distributes funds to grassroots, national and international organizations and programs that work to stop violence against women and girls.

Through V-Day campaigns, local volunteers and college students produce annual benefit performances of The Vagina Monologues to raise awareness and funds for anti-violence groups within their communities, from Valentine’s Day, February 14 through International Women’s Day, March 8.

The 'V' in V-Day stands for Victory, Valentine and Vagina.

1 History
2 Support
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] History

It was founded by playwright of The Vagina Monologues, Eve Ensler. In its first year V-Day was named one of Worth Magazine's "100 Best Charities." In 2006, it was named one of Marie Claire magazine's "Top Ten" charities.

V-Day stages large-scale benefits and produces innovative gatherings, films and campaigns to educate and change social attitudes towards violence against women including: the documentary Until the Violence Stops, community briefings on the missing and murdered women of Juárez, Mexico, the December 2003 V-Day delegation trip to Israel, Palestine, Egypt and Jordan, the Afghan Women's Summit, the March 2004 delegation to India, the Stop Rape Contest, the Indian Country Project, and Love Your Tree.

In 2006, over 2700 V-Day benefit events took place produced by volunteer activists in the U.S. and around the world, educating millions of people about the reality of violence against women and girls.

In eight years, the V-Day movement has raised over $40 million.

[edit] Support

In Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, V-Day commits ongoing support to build movements and anti-violence networks. Working with local organizations, V-Day provided hard-won funding that helped open the first shelters for women in Egypt and Iraq, sponsored annual workshops and three national campaigns in Afghanistan, convened the "Confronting Violence" conference of South Asian women leaders, and donated satellite-phones to Afghan women to keep lines of communication open and action plans moving forward. Through the Karama program based out of Cairo, V-Day works in-depth to build networks ending violence against women and girls in Egypt, Sudan, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.

Performance is just the beginning. V-Day`s purpose is to generate broader attention for the fight to stop violence against women and girls, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM) and sexual slavery.