One Billion Rising

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Congratulations to the seventh graduating class of City Of Joy! 88 women & girls celebrated themselves and their revolutionary transformations over the past six months. Read a full report about the day and three graduate profiles by V-Day Congo: http://bit.ly/1HWVrcx

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#vday #1billionrising #revolution

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ACTIVISTS ACROSS THE GLOBE MOBILIZE FOR ONE BILLION RISING: REVOLUTION CAMPAIGN

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts: CJ Frogozo, 310-570-2622, cj(at)fitzgibbonmedia.com V-Day, 917-865-6603, media(at)vday.org

Activists Across the Globe Mobilize for One Billion Rising: Revolution Campaign

Third Year of Mass Anti-Violence Campaign Kicks Off with ARTISTIC UPRISING Event at NYC’s Hammerstein Ballroom on February 7

Series with The Huffington Post Features First Person Profiles of Global Activists

January 27, 2015 – One Billion Rising, the largest global action to end violence against women and girls in human history, is launching its third year with One Billion Rising: Revolution, a new escalation that calls for a radical shift to end the global epidemic of abuse that women face worldwide.

With the tagline “Drum, Dance & Rise,” women, men and youth will plan, lead, and participate in actions, dance, political and artistic events, and rallies —or Risings—in hundreds of countries on (and around) the date of February 14th to highlight, spark, and mobilize artistic and community-based initiatives to bring in the new revolutionary world of equality, dignity, and freedom for all women and girls.

For a full list of global Risings, please visit: http://www.onebillionrising.org/events

“1 in 3 women across the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. That’s one billion women and girls. Every February, we rise – in hundreds of countries across the world – to show our local communities and the world what one billion looks like and shine a light on the rampant impunity and injustice that survivors most often face,” stated Eve Ensler, playwright, activist and Founder of One Billion Rising. “We rise through dance to express joy and community and celebrate the fact that we have not been defeated by this violence. We rise to show we are determined to create a new kind of consciousness – one where violence will be resisted until it is unthinkable. This year we are rising for Revolution.”

At a meeting in Rome last spring, One Billion Rising’s global coordinators chose the theme of “Revolution” for 2015 as an escalation of the prior two years, building upon the successes and wide-scale networks that have been mobilized to date. Since 2013, activists in more than 200 countries have staged RISING events, bringing the issue front and center, garnering worldwide media attention, changing laws, and demanding justice and an end to the rampant impunity that women survivors of gender based violence face.

Thousands of events will take place around the world the week of February 14th.  One Billion Rising will host a kickoff event in New York City at Hammerstein Ballroom on Saturday, February 7th.  The one-night-only benefit will bring together a groundbreaking group of performers and artists united around the common goal of ending violence against women, including: Tony Award winning playwright, performer, activist & founder of One Billion Rising and V-Day Eve Ensler; actress and V-Day Board member Thandie Newton; actress Kathy Najimy; Orange is the New Black actress and long-time V-Day activist Emma Myles; actor, comedian, and activist Rosie O’Donnell; Brooklyn-based artist Swoon; singer-songwriter Maya Azucena; international music group Batala NYC; activist musical group BETTY; band Y3K; multimedia & spoken word duo Climbing PoeTree; City of Joy and V-Day Congo Director Christine Schuler Deschryver (Congo); poet and spoken word performer Asali Devan Ecclesiastes; poet and vocalist Gina Loring; anti-FGM women & girls’ rights activist Agnes Pareyio (Kenya); poet, singer, and activist Sunni Patterson; theatrical dance & extreme action company STREB; beat boxer, actor, and youth activist Karabo Tshikube (South Africa); artist and performance poet Jaha Zainabu; women’s rights activist Zoya (Afghanistan); One Billion Rising Director Monique Wilson (Manila and Singapore); and others to be announced.

For a full list of participants and ticket sales information, go to: http://www.onebillionrising.org/tix

This year, the One Billion Rising leaders are also sharing their stories in a joint series with the Huffington Post, entitled “Building to One Billion: Revolution.”  Writers for the series include Khushi Kabir (Bangladesh), Sohini Chakraborty (India), Agnes Pareyio (Kenya), Rosi Orozco (Mexico) Jessica Montoya (Santa Fe), and Nakima Jones (United States).  The series will continue through 14 February.

Actions will escalate on the One Billion Rising website, which acts as a global hub for the risings and where people are encouraged to share their stories of revolution in the fight to eradicate violence against women. Answering the call for videos, blog posts, photos and art has been a range of artists, scholars, musicians, and poets.  The site features “My Revolution” statements from actor and V-Day Board member Thandie Newton, feminist scholar Zillah Eisenstein, Climbing PoeTree, Asali Devan Ecclesiastes, as well as activists and local organizers.  Eve Ensler’s monologue inspired by the campaign is entitled “My Revolution Lives In This Body.”

Back by popular demand, “Break the Chain” will remain the official anthem of One Billion Rising. The song was written and produced by legendary music dynamo Tena Clark, and choreographed by dance icon and award winning choreographer Debbie Allen, and is used in One Billion Rising protests, social justice actions, and risings worldwide. Activists around the world have translated the song into multiple languages and local artists have recorded it as seen in the short film One Billion Rising for Justice.

The scope and the scale of the activities are vast and yet specific.  Local One Billion Rising activists reflect the violence against women issues that concern them locally, while networking across groups and networks in their communities and leveraging the global nature of the campaign. From actions scheduled in 34 Afghan provinces – including an event for 1000 at Kabul University, to VetsRising, a campaign organized by US military veterans who have experienced MST (military sexual trauma) to Rise for the Raise seeking fair wages that will take place throughout the United States, in the Philippines and more, Rising events are planned across the globe.  (To learn about more local risings, visit http://www.onebillionrising.org/blog)

ONE BILLION RISING: REVOLUTION is an energy, a platform, a global movement, a catalyst, a worldwide decision to end violence against women, a demand for justice, a paradigm shift, an invitation, a gathering of the ready, housed everywhere, housed in our hearts, you, us, REVOLUTION.

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One Billion Rising is a global initiative to raise awareness of—and end—violence against women. 1 in 3 women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime, adding up to more than one billion women and girls. http://www.onebillionrising.org

To read the longer version of the press release with recaps of rising activities around the globe, click here >

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ONLINE EVENT: ONE BILLION RISING REVOLUTION – VIRTUAL RISE UP & DANCE FOR PEACE

 My name is Danya Daccash, and I have been a sexual violence counsellor for 25 years.  I have worked in Canadian grassroots community organizations counselling targets of gender based violence, helping women heal from the devastating impact of abuse.  I have offered countless workshops and trainings on violence against women, healthy relationships, bystander intervention, and how to support survivors from a feminist perspective.

In 2013 when One Billion Rising began, I was not able to attend my local gathering due to disability.  I wanted very much to participate in this global event, so I decided to celebrate on my own.  In keeping with the feminist notion of “the personal is political”, I knew that there were many others around the world that, for a variety of reasons, also would not be able to attend a local gathering.

So, in keeping with my community activism, I came up with this creative solution – to host an annual Virtual Event through my Facebook page called ”Online Event: ONE BILLION RISING – Virtual RISE UP & DANCE FOR PEACE”.  We know that violence against women is a global human issue, present in every culture of the world.  This virtual option is available to everyone on the planet, regardless of where they reside.  Now, through the online community, we can all be part of the *Web* of Energy for the Global Dance for Peace for Women!  We can RISE UP & DANCE in “virtual” solidarity with all the events across the planet. Let us join in and be counted as One Billion Rise in this worldwide REVOLUTION!

So far, about 1000 people around the world have participated in this online event.   If you would like to participate in this year’s 3rd annual Virtual Event on February 14, 2015, sign up here: Online Event: ONE BILLION RISING REVOLUTION – Virtual RISE UP & DANCE FOR PEACE

Together we are creating a global community that teaches our boys & men to respect women & girls and to speak out against “rape culture”, a culture that condones gender based violence, blames victims and defends abusers.  We are creating a society that values compassion and prioritizes support for targets of sexual violence. This year we are rising for Revolution.

#1BillionRising #Rise4Revolution

I invite each of us to think about 1 thing we can do this coming year toward ending gender violence, and helping bring peace and safety for women and girls. (eg. speak out against sexism or sexual violence, support a survivor, volunteer at a crisis center, post about this issue on your facebook page, talk to friends and family about these issues, be a role model for your kids, write a letter asking for harsher sentences for rapists, heal your own trauma…).

In Solidarity,

Danya Daccash, MSW, RSW

www.TeleCounsellingforWomen.com

Direct Link to Virtual Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1002299416450943/

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PHOTO BLOG: WHY I DANCE

Activists from Los Angeles shared this photo series in connection to their upcoming RISE For Revolution event featuring a “dance party, launch party, screening, and premiere to celebrate the release of activist pole dance film “Women.”

Get more info and RSVP to attend the event HERE

Why I Dance

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**Trigger Warning: Domestic violence, rape**

Vision All-Female band was formed in November 2002 and is currently comprised of 7 women from across Guyana.  Each woman brings not only skills but also experience to the band in terms of singing, playing musical instruments and song-writing, to name a few. This band has traveled extensively throughout Guyana and has also been privileged to perform overseas in Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados and Jamaica. Caribbean One Billion Rising for the Revolution is proud to have them join us in our Rising in Guyana on March 2015. The band tackles the issue of domestic violence in their latest video – “Women Rise Up” and will perform this song at our event as they join us in continuing to seek to empower women through music and bring healing to a nation that cries for change.

Band members

Sharon Bryan – Band Leader/ Bass Guitarist

Donell Bess-Bascom – Assistant Band Leader/ Lead Singer

Odessa Shako – Keyboardist

Lisa Robertson – Drummer/ Back-up singer

Victorine Edwards-Fraser – Drummer

Deslyn Bess – Singer

Gail Hall – Singer

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RISE FOR REVOLUTION STENCILS ARE NOW AVAILABLE

As you and your community are preparing for your Revolution events on or around 14 Feb, remember to check the TOOLKIT for all the most up-to-date resources available for sharing, publicizing, and planning! We’ve just added these stencils for activists to make sings, shirts, or anything else to help take you message to the streets!

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Watch and hear how GABRIELA women in the Philippines are organising and preparing for One Billion Rising Revolution and why they are RISING FOR REVOLUTION. 

REVOLUTION is a demand for nothing less than a SYSTEM CHANGE - overhauling, challenging and fighting against a corrupt system and government that neglects the poor and only serves the rich, big business people and foreign corporations. Filipinos are RISING TO END VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS - BY RISING AGAINST ALL THE SYSTEMS THAT KEEP POVERTY, DISCRIMINATION, OPPRESSION AND INEQUALITY IN PLACE. Filipinos are RISING FOR REVOLUTION - RISING AGAINST ALL FORMS OF ECONOMIC and STATE INSTIGATED VIOLENCE.

GABRIELA is the biggest national alliance of grassroots women's groups in the Philippines - consisting of 200 mass based groups of peasant women, women farmworkers, women migrants, women domestic workers, church women, youth, children, teachers and women workers. They have been leading the ONE BILLION RISING CAMPAIGN in the PHILIPPINES for the last 3 years. Join us for Rising events in Manila and all around the Philippines on February 14, 2015! RISE FOR REVOLUTION!

Produced by Pinoy Media Center. Directed by Ilang-Ilang Quijano

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Jane Fonda is RISING, are you? Here she is on a recent visit to Rome. One Billion Rising: REVOLUTION is almost here. DRUM! DANCE! RISE on or about 14 February! Find an EVENT near you.

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I WATCHED TRAUMATIZED WOMEN FIGHT BACK – AND TRANSFORM MY COUNTRY – ROSI OROZCO

This is the story of how a group of women who were shunned and abused and regarded as worthless came together – to transform the laws of their country, and save the lives of many more women like them. 

By 2005, I had been working in Mexico for more than a decade with women who were being abused by their partners, when I was invited to a conference in Washington DC. There, I heard about an issue I knew nothing about – something called “human trafficking.” I was told about a sixteen year-old girl who was taken from her country and raped for money every day – and when she escaped, she committed suicide. 

The story haunted me. When I came home to Mexico, I discovered there were no shelters for trafficking victims, and almost nothing to help them. I thought about how lucky I have been in my life – I had beautiful parents and a wonderful husband – and I thought: I have to show my gratitude. I must act.

I started to investigate to discover the extent of human trafficking in Mexico. One of the first people I spoke to was a senior police officer, who said to me: “Hey woman! Stop crying – these girls like it!”

A local charity took me to meet some prostituted women in Mexico City. I sat with 21-year old woman called Elisabeth Morales. I stood out as an older woman. I told her I liked her little black purse, and we began to talk. She started to tell me about how she had ended up in this situation.

When she was 15, she had gone to live with a man, and had two children – but her husband vanished to live in the United States, and she was left alone with no money. One day, she met a man who seemed very kind, and he offered to look after her. He came to meet her parents, and he really charmed them: he cooked for them and brought them presents and asked their permission to marry Elisabeth and take her with him to the distant city of Puebla.

When they arrived there, he said he was going to starve her unless she started to ‘work’ for him – as a prostitute. He locked her up and denied her food until she ‘agreed’. She was then forcibly prostituted for months on end. One day, when he was drunk, she smashed a bottle and waved it at him until she escaped. Free at last, she realized she was too ashamed and afraid to go back to her family – she thought he would come looking for her. Lost and alone, she came to Mexico City, and ended up back in prostitution.

I asked Elisabeth and two of her friends: do you want to get out of this life? They immediately said yes. I told them to pack their things at once and come with me. With others, I helped them to get accommodation and therapy. I watched as they changed, and went on to study at university. I thought to myself – every human is precious. Every life is like a whole world. 

As soon as Elisabeth was in therapy, she said to me – we have to help other women. We can’t just leave them there.

The more women I met, the more horrific the stories I found were. I met a woman called Karla Jacinto. When we first rescued her and got her therapy, she was sixteen years old, and furious. If you told her you understood, she would hit the walls and yell that you couldn’t possibly understand. Eventually her story emerged. She was forced into prostitution from the ages of 12 to 16, and in that time, more than 40,000 men raped her. When she tried to refuse, she was tortured with a hot iron and whipped with cables. She showed us her scars.

As I started to investigate human trafficking, I discovered something that shocked me. The network of men running these organizations in Mexico runs to the very top – the politicians and police. It was clearly dangerous to intrude in this world – but we could not allow this crime to continue unopposed.

In 2009, I decided to run for the congress with ending human trafficking as my sole and only issue. I knew it would be almost impossible to win – I was up against a candidate with a very big majority and very strong political links, and I had very little money – but I wanted to raise awareness, and I believed the Mexican people would respond. 

To everyone’s amazement – especially my own – I won with a big majority. On my first day in Congress, I gave every single other Member of Congress a video explaining what human trafficking is, and explained we had to outlaw it. Up to then, there was a poor patchwork of laws that did not properly punish the pimps.

Women who had been trafficked came in to the Congress to explain their stories and argue for a change in the law. One woman explained how her virginity was sold for $300. Another explained how she saw her father kill her mother when she was six and was sold into prostitution soon after. Along with many NGOs, these women and girls were the leading force in this fight. After their extensive lobbying, one of the toughest anti-trafficking laws in the world was passed – unanimously.

Mexico now has one of the highest rates of successful prosecution of human trafficking in the world. I saw the results in the life of a girl I worked with and admire deeply. At the age of 14, two female cousins walking by the side of the road when they dragged into trucks by the side of the road, and drugged. They woke up far away – to be raped. They were detained in a brothel: they saw another captive there was eight years old, and she was raped too. Their captor was a woman, who told them not to cry – I was trafficked too, she said, and far worse things happened to me.

One day, one of the cousins stole some water because she was so thirsty. The female pimp was furious and demanded to know who took it. The cousin didn’t say anything – so her fellow captive said that she had taken it, to protect her friend. The pimp started to beat the girl so severely that she died. Can you imagine the guilt?

Not long after, when the female pimp was very drunk, the girl escaped and stumbled out into the street. Through begging for help, she was finally – days later – able to stagger back into her hometown, exhausted and broken. But as soon as she got off the bus, people began to recognize her. The whole neighborhood had been looking for her when she vanished. But when they saw she was dressed as a prostitute, they began to jeer. “Do you know what you have done to your parents?” they began to yell. She was only five blocks from home – but she thought: I can’t go home. I am ruined.

She was torn – but she decided to go home. Her parents loved her and were so happy to see her. They supported her. The difference, I believe, between this girl becoming like the pimp-woman who tortured her, and recovering, was that love.

Now that girl has successfully testified against many of the men who abused her, and another trial is coming later this year. She has won. Her abusers are in prison.

Elisabeth, the first prostituted woman I met, is now a successful businesswoman. Karla , who at first was lost in rage and madness, has traveled all over the world testifying to her experiences. The NGOs we were involved in setting up help hundreds more women. I saw Karla talk at a conference in front of leading religious figures from all over the world – and at the end, on her own initiative, she led them in prayer. She felt no shame and no self-consciousness. She knew she is as good as anyone.

I have been involved in One Billion Rising – the movement for all the one billion women who have been abused to rise up as one each February 14th – since it began. I have seen in my own country and my own life what happens when the women who are regarded as marginal and worthless rise up. They transform themselves and they transform their countries. 

In Mexico, a few thousand abused women rose up, and we have prevented a huge amount of trafficking. If one billion women rise, is there anything we would not be able to achieve?

As told to One Billion Rising.

1 in 3 women across the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. That’s ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS. Every February, we rise — in hundreds of countries across the world — to show our local communities and the world what one billion looks like and shine a light on the rampant impunity and injustice that survivors most often face. We rise through dance to express joy and community and and celebrate the fact that we have not been defeated by this violence. We rise to show we are determined to create a new kind of consciousness — one where violence will be resisted until it is unthinkable.

This year we are rising for Revolution. We are initiating a new series, “Building to One Billion Rising Revolution,” where we will be sharing stories of extraordinary activists who embody the creative radical shift in consciousness required to bring about CHANGE.

Grassroots activists who fight for justice and liberation with passion and joy.

Send us your stories. Stories change everything.

V-Day assumes no liability for any statements made by you on this page or that you otherwise submit to V-Day. Please remember that your post is public. Do not post real names, including your own, in association with your story.

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I SERVE YOUR FAST FOOD AND I’M FIGHTING TO SURVIVE. WANT TO HEAR MY STORY? – NAKIMA JONES

If you saw me in the street, you might recognize me, but I guess you wouldn’t know where from. I’m the person who served up your Happy Meal in McDonald’s. A few years later, I waited on your table at Red Lobster. A few years after that, I brought over your barbeque ribs at Dallas BBQ. Whenever I talk to customers like you, I smile as big as I can, and I say that I hope you have a nice day. I mean it too. But I figure I am writing this to tell you something I wouldn’t tell you over the counter. I want to tell you what life is like for people like me right now – because I am not having a nice day, and if I’m honest, I haven’t been for a really long time now.

When I first became a waitress at the age of 17 in a pizzeria on Long Island, I loved it – I loved serving, I loved being with people, I loved food. I earned the minimum wage then. Now, twenty years later, I still live on the minimum wage. Today, that’s $5 an hour. That makes $1200 a month. I want to tell you what the bills are to keep myself and my three kids from becoming homeless – because that’s what I think about all the time, including when I bring you your food, no matter how big my smile might seem.

My rent is $1200 a month. My babysitting (so I can go to work) is $200 a month. Our food is $400 a month. The lights and water are $150. The phone is $60. The laundry is $60. The transportation is $130.

Can you add that up? I have never been able to. It’s hard to love your job when it doesn’t let you live. I am in debt all the time. The last few places I’ve worked, tips on top of the $5 subminimum wage* I get paid, have pushed me over into being able to survive, most months – but not all. I sometimes have the electricity cut off. The lights go dead; everything in the refrigerator goes bad. I have never had a vacation – not since I started this work at 17. I never have any time off – not for twenty years. I went into labor with my son on a shift at Red Lobster, because I couldn’t afford to take any time off. I was back at work almost as soon as he was born. My mom – who was a dental assistant – has to buy us sneakers or clothes when ours are no use any more. If it wasn’t for her… I don’t want to think about what have happened if it wasn’t for her.

I always know I am one accident, one slip-up, from it all falling apart. And at work, a lot of the time, I am treated like dirt. The management keeps you insecure – any mistake and they tell you that you could be out of a job at any second. Oftentimes I would be pressured to stay after the end of my shift and keep working, even though I had to get my kids from school. I have seen co-workers just fall apart – not be able to make ends meet, and end up homeless. People are afraid to speak out, because you can be fired and lose the last life-line you have.

But these days, as I serve your food, I am also thinking about something else – something better. A few years ago, I was pretty down. I know you have to work hard in life to get what you want, and I have always worked hard. My kids learned to never ask for much, because I got nothing. I was constantly upset, constantly stressed – when I’ve only ever done the right thing and work as hard as I can. When I hear politicians like Paul Ryan and Marco Rubio bragging that they, or their parents, did jobs like mine, I think – if you have been where I am now, how come you haven’t got a heart to help us?

And then I heard about an alternative. I heard there was a group called Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United here in New York – I live in Harlem – who were organizing to fight for the right to fair pay, paid sick leave, and for people who work in my kind of jobs to have other basic protections. 

You shouldn’t have to go to work if you are ill, they explained – it’s bad for you and bad for the customers. We organized and fought. It’s not easy, when you work as hard as I do, to find that time and energy. But we did it – and we won. In New York State, we have paid sick leave now. You’ll never see me sniveling over your lobster ever again. 

Now we are fighting for something even more important – one fair wage. We’re not asking for gold. We’re not asking for diamonds. We’re asking to get paid enough to support our families. The US is the only country that forces workers to live off tips. If you get tips at work, New York’s restaurants can pay you just $5 an hour. And New York’s full minimum wage is just $8, far lower than the rates in other countries. For me, a fair minimum wage means I’ll be able to buy clothes for my kids. It means I won’t be constantly terrified of being cut off from power. It means I can depend on a regular paycheck each week, and not have to hustle shift-to-shift for tips, putting up with advances from customers that think their tips gives them the right to hit on me, and get away with groping and eyeballing me. One Fair Wage means I will get paid fairly for a job well-done.

Maybe you’ve seen folks like me, we’ve been protesting at headquarters of the some of the biggest restaurant brands in the world, we’ve been outside fast food restaurants all over the US. We’re handing out leaflets, asking for your support. Nobody who works this hard should be this poor. Nobody who is struggling this much should feel this lost. 

The fight for fair wages is spreading all over country – and if I win, you win. I see in Manhattan where all the money has been flowing – I see the fancy towers and the people going into them. I think some of that money – just a little – should start flowing back towards people like me and most likely you, ordinary Americans doing our best and working hard.

Thank you to everyone who comes up to us when we protest, to say you’re on our side. In the months of doing this, we have never once had anyone say anything mean, or negative, or downbeat. We know America is on our side. We won the fight for sick pay, and I believe we are going to win one fair wage. I think people all over the country need to stand up, like we’re standing up. 

I believe we are going to win – and I can’t think about the alternative now, because I got to tell you, I can’t face another thirty years of living the way I have for the last twenty. I can’t face the lights going out one more time. I am trying to turn on a light. I got a lot of people standing with me. Please – join us.

As told to the One Billion Rising team.

You can join the fight for One Fair Wage at www.rocunited.org. They are working in alliance with One Billion Rising, which can be joined at www.onebillionrising.org

* The minimum wage for tipped workers in New York State is $5 an hour; these workers, 70% female, were frozen out of the New York State minimum wage increase this past year. The federal minimum wage for tipped workers has been frozen at $2.13 an hour for the last 23 years, and is between $2.13 and $5 an hour in 43 states nationwide.

1 in 3 women across the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. That’s ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS. Every February, we rise — in hundreds of countries across the world — to show our local communities and the world what one billion looks like and shine a light on the rampant impunity and injustice that survivors most often face. We rise through dance to express joy and community and and celebrate the fact that we have not been defeated by this violence. We rise to show we are determined to create a new kind of consciousness — one where violence will be resisted until it is unthinkable.

This year we are rising for Revolution. We are initiating a new series, “Building to One Billion Rising Revolution,” where we will be sharing stories of extraordinary activists who embody the creative radical shift in consciousness required to bring about CHANGE.

Grassroots activists who fight for justice and liberation with passion and joy.

Send us your stories. Stories change everything.

V-Day assumes no liability for any statements made by you on this page or that you otherwise submit to V-Day. Please remember that your post is public. Do not post real names, including your own, in association with your story.

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Statement from the Asia Rises meeting

Taipei, Taiwan January 11-12

50 feminists and One Billion Rising coordinators from Asia met in Taipei on January 11-12, 2015 at the Asia Rises to End Violence Against Women meeting to share our stories, activism, achievements, and challenges.

We are issuing a call to the whole of Asia to join us in rising to end violence against women.

The first One Billion Rising movement started in 2012 with actions on February 14, 2013 as an invitation to the world to rise and dance for the one-in-three (one billion) women in the world who will be raped or beaten in their lifetime.

The second Rising in 2014 focused on justice because we recognized that violence against women would not stop unless perpetrators such as states, organized religions, families, schools, workplaces, the military, and other patriarchal structures are held accountable.

In 2015 the focus of the third One Billion Rising will be “revolution” to change mindsets and systems that sustain the culture of patriarchy and economic, environmental, racial and gender violence against women.

One Billion Rising is a unique event that combines art and activism, dancing, singing, poetry and drumming, unites different groups together in solidarity, is a global movement that is owned locally.

Violence against women and girls in Asia remains widespread, systemic, state-instigated, and culturally entrenched.

Women continue to experience violence at home, in public spaces, at school, at work, at the market, at bars and clubs, in the military, inside and outside, everywhere they go.

Violence is a continuum of violations including harassment, bullying, homophobia, transphobia, cyber-violence, misogynistic hate speech, assault, beating, rape, disappearance, disfiguration, mutilation, torture, trafficking, political suppression, economic exploitation, sexual war crimes, and murder.

We call on communities of women and men all over Asia to rise up against patriarchy, misogyny and exploitation in all its forms and spread the word, raise awareness, and organize campaigns that challenge the culture that breeds violence against women and girls.

We call on Asian cities and countries to declare themselves violence free zones.

We call on all social movements to use One Billion Rising and its global energy and solidarity to escalate their own existing social movements and join in strength with women and men across the region and the world.

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One Billion Rising: Social Campaign Overview

Ed note: This post is our submission for the SoMe Awards, recognizing the best social media campaigns of 2012-2013.

One Billion Rising was the largest ever day of global action - online and offline - protesting violence against women and girls. Tens of thousands of flashmobs in hundreds of cities in every country on earth were planned by local activists to focus global attention on the issue on the occasion of V-Day’s 15th anniversary.

The goal for the social media team was to create and launch a global, multi-channel marketing and engagement campaign to harness and amplify that activity. To reach a level of exposure online that would reflect engagement offline, we increased engagement and created participatory opportunities for our supporters. We also wanted to share live events in real time with the world to involve as many participants as possible, and trend our hashtag in as many countries as possible.

The campaign spread across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, Instagram, and Soundcloud.

An awareness campaign was launched in February 2012. Content was designed to connect with our core community and show the the power of what ONE BILLION RISING could look like, and to inform and inspire our global audiences to get involved and RISE. This included a short film, the “I Am Rising” video series featuring personal testimony from both activists and celebrities, and two hashtags, #reasontorise and #1billionrising, which became focal points for women to share their stories and rally around news such as Todd Aiken's "legitimate rape" comment, the shooting of Malala Yousafzai, or the rape trial in Steubenville. (Note: The response to both hashtags has continued to demonstrate the way a social issue campaign can help unleash pent up demand and give voice to the silenced.)

  Caption: Our One Billion Rising short film has over 1M views.

Caption: Robert Redford and many more joined our campaign early on to boost awareness. View other celebrity "I Am Rising..." videos on YouTube.

Gripping, passionate plea: "Dear Mr. Akin, I Want You to Imagine..." huff.to/QiW0Ca #ReasonToRise

August 20, 2012

Caption: One example of our #reasontorise hashtag in the wild.

Once we had laid the foundations for the day of action, we continually invited the activists to create their own content and expressions of support. V-Day has a remarkably creative community of supporters and through their networks and events and risings, we could show the world what One Billion looked like, show the breadth of the issue of violence against women and girls, and show the power of women and men coming together in over 207 countries to end it once and for all. Over the course of the campaign, we received tens of thousands of photos, videos, and artworks, including original songs and music videos, poems, and dances.

Caption: Women and men worldwide submitted photos of themselves stating their reason to rise.

Caption: Videos and tracks like these were submitted out of the blue by artists inspired by the movement.

On the day of One Billion Rising, we shifted our focus to broadcasting events as they unfolded around the globe. We created a robust network of webcasting partners to stream multiple real-time events over 48 hours via our YouTube Live channel and other platforms, from Manilla, to the Democratic Republic of Congo, to Hawai'i. We also curated and aggregated the most expressive, entertaining, and joyous UGC media from Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, saturating the social channels with this engaging, highly shareable content. To mimic the offline actions, we created a Thunderclap campaign, an online flashmob, designed to hit Facebook and Twitter at the same time with our core message and branding.

We received ~10,000 photos on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram on February 13-14, 2013. You can view all photos posted on V-Day's Facebook wall for a larger sample.

Caption: This was one of the most popular UGC images on V-Day 2013.

Caption: Image from City of Joy, Bukavu, DRC, a revolutionary community for women survivors of gender violence, built by V-Day activists.

Caption: "Men, don't skirt the issue. Speak up, support women."

#1billionrising went viral, a testament to an idea whose time has come. The numbers speak for themselves: during the 72 hours surrounding One Billion Rising, our campaign achieved 600M impressions on Twitter, trending in 7 countries (Philippines, India, South Africa, UK, Peru, Mexico, USA), and garnering messages of support from David Cameron, Nancy Pelosi, Russell Simmons, and many more. Even the European Parliament held a flashmob! We trended four times in the US during February 14, once specifically because of the Thunderclap campaign. One Billion Rising leveraged the power of V-Day’s grassroots model in conjunction with its 15th Anniversary.  The key to the social success - celebrities were not driving this activity - it was genuinely a grassroots rising.

  Caption: Total number of tweets sent per hour during One Billion Rising, which hit a sustained peak of 233 per minute.

Caption: Cumulative exposure of Twitter impressions during One Billion Rising.

On Facebook (where available statistics always underreport overall exposure), we increased our fan base 30% from February 12-15, achieved a combined PTAT rate of 29%, and generated 20M page impressions. Per post engagement reached as high as 30% thanks to hundreds of thousands of likes, comments, and shares. Additionally, Facebook drove a quarter of all website traffic during One Billion Rising, many first-time visitors, who had perhaps not heard of V-Day before. We saw significant spikes in visits to pages where supporters could learn more and get involved. And, particularly on Facebook, conversation, UGC media, and engagement continued robustly for weeks after the campaign official ended.

By the end of the campaign, we had increased our social footprint by 1000%, achieved over a billion impressions across mostly owned and earned media, and engaged a global network of supporters on a massive scale. Thanks to the power of social media, the conversation continues online. 

Immediately following February 14, One Billion Rising and V-Day activists helped get the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) passed in the US Senate and House of Representatives, leveraging the conversation that One Billion Rising started.  The Rising momentum continues today, pushing for changes in laws around the world to better protect women and to strengthen the punishments for offenders to directly address the problem of impunity. 

Caption: A rape survivor shared this post on our Facebook wall, inspired by One Billion Rising. 

SoMe Award Details:

Category: Just 'Cause and House Party Organization Name: V-Day Created for: V-Day Campaign Name: One Billion Rising Team members: V-Day Social Team (Brooke Shelby Biggs, Emi Kane, Jonathan Archer); V-Day Staff by alphabetical order (Eve Ensler, Carl Chen, Kate Fisher, David Hay, Cecile Lipworth, Tony Montenieri, Shael Norris, Nikki Noto, Purva Panday, Chrinstine Schuler Deschryver, Amy Squires, Susan Celia Swan, Jason Swyak, Laura Waleryszak)

[onebillionrising]

Free at last (German version of "Break the Chain" - One Billion Rising)

Lyrics & Voice: Eva Ulrike of Weltzien

Recording: Philipp Kudelka, L-tone Studio Munich, www.l-ton.de

  (Intro)

I lift my face

and set fire to my light

Deep under my skin

I've built a castle out of power

  Run - Dance - Get up!

Run - Dance - Get up!

  Come take my hand and run with me

From the walls of your pain

Nothing can hold more but you

Tear the fear out of your heart

  No one owns you, and nothing is right

What you wounded and what makes you powerless The power is in you, get up and dance with me We survived, we are still here!

  Dance against your fear

Dance you see light (dance with me!)

Dance until you can breathe

Dance until you're free (come with me!)

Dance on a Volcano

Just dance, at the World

Run, break the chains

We dance and are free at last - (Come with me, come with me, come with me!) - Mhm - Free at last

  Dance - Get up! Yeh-eh-eh-eh ...

Dance - Get up! Yeh-eh-eh-eh ...

  We are dancing through the storm and into the night We shine brighter than the stars Come with us to the world, enlightens For love, which is our power

  We belong to us alone

We believe what we do, and no always means no!

We are vulnerable and we are wonderful

We give life but also we are here!

  Dance against your fear

Dance are you see light (come with me!)

Dance until you can breathe

Dance until you're free (dance with me!) Dance on a Volcano Just dance, at the World Run, break the chains We dance and are free at last - (Come with me, come with me, come with me!) - Mhm Free at last (come with me, come with me, come with me!) - Mhm - free at last!

  Break Inst

  Yeh-eh-eh-eh ...

  Come on get up and dance! Dance! -

Come and go with me! Run-

Come on get up and dance! Dance! -

Come and go with me! -Stand up! -

Come on get up and dance!

Come and go with me!

Come on get up and dance!

Come and go with me!

  Yeh-eh-eh-eh ...

Dance! Stand On!

  We belong to us alone

We believe what we do, and no always means no!

We are vulnerable and we are wonderful

We give life but also we are here!

  Dance against your fear

Dance are you see light (come with me!)

Dance until you can breathe

Dance freely to you (Dance with me) are

Dance on a Volcano

Just dance, at the World

Run, break the chains

We dance and are free at (Come with me, come with me, come with me!) - Mhm Free at last

(2x)

  Hmm ... (Come with me, come with me, come with me!) - Mhm Free at last

  One Billion ... Rising!

[onebillionrising]

Two US sailors were sentenced and sent to prison in Okinawa, Japan on Friday for the rape and robbery of a young Japanese woman, refueling long-standing anger against the occupation by the American military in Japan.

Read the full story here.

[onebillionrising]

One Billion Rising - a poem by Noel Canin

For Eve Ensler, for all of us

  We step into our lives

Bright beads of hope

One woman threaded to another.

  The thread of hope

Catches on a slash of pain

Breaks, knots, flies up again.

  The thread of loss

Its gnarled old presence

Calling to the strength of us.

  The thread of rape

scars corrupt kindness

recovery a long slow shape.

  The thread is PAIN

The thread is STOP

The thread is SET

  And we will STAND

Thread by thread, hand by hand

In Africa and in Asia

In the West and in the East

And we will dance

And we will sing

And we will shake the earth

Our very lives depend upon

  We will give our huge thundering heart

Back its ancient pregnant roar

WE WILL STAND ACROSS THE WORLD

WALK OUT 

DANCE  

RISE UP

SOAR

FOR WE ARE ONE BILLION BIRTHING

One billion rising

Holding the thread

Breaking the chain

  We are Lucille Clifton’s

“lovely line of women

stepping without fear

or guilt or shame.”

  We are Eve Ensler’s Girl Cells

And the Song of Songs

The cry of Hallelluya

The transforming of all wrongs

  we are Mothers and we are Daughters,

Sisters and Wives

we are Everywoman and each Woman

distinct beneath the skies

  We are beginnings and we are ends

We are wisdom and we are ripe

We are One Billion Rising

A current set alight.