As we near the end of the year, our hearts are full with the abundance of love that fuels our movement, led by survivors, youth, artists & activists in countries everywhere. Together, we are united in our fight to end violence against all women and girls (cisgender, transgender, and those who hold fluid identities that are subject to gender based violence) and we stand side by side in global solidarity until the violence stops.
In breathtaking solidarity, women leaders in Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya are pushing boundaries and creating spaces born from the vision of local women survivors where women and girls turn their pain into power. They are creating a world where women can thrive rather than merely survive.
To send a V-Card on the donation pages, check the box next to “I’d like to make this contribution in honor or memory of someone” and then “I’d like to notify someone of this contribution,” then fill in the rest of the information to finish designing your gift.
Support their work this season. Give the gift of JOY, donate today:
Raise the Vibration, Educate a Generation! City of Knowledge in Kabul
City of Knowledge (CKO), – formerly Promoting Women’s Capability by Education Center –is an education center for girls and women in Kabul, Afghanistan where women turn their pain to power. Rising in the face of four decades of war that has left a huge population of Afghan women illiterate and several generations of women deprived of education, City of Knowledge is an education center for girls and women that offers courses in Computers, Science, Literacy, Arts, English, and Women’s rights. Graduates go on to pursue university and the careers of their choice, becoming the future doctors, engineers, lawyers, scientists, artists, and technical experts of Afghanistan, and inspiring countless others to do the same.
View the video (above) to get to know City of Knowledge. Donate today.
Changing Culture, Educating Girls; the V-Day Safe House for the Girls in Narok, Kenya
Photo Credit: Paula Allen
Tasaru Ntomonok is a grassroots initiative that created and runs the V-Day Safe House for the Girls in the southern Rift Valley in Narok County, providing shelter and educating girls running away from “the cut” and early childhood marriage.
Led by Agnes Pareyio, the founder of Tasaru Ntomonok, Chair of the Anti-FGM Board of Kenya, and UN Person of the Year for Kenya (2005), Agnes and her team bravely confront the cultural practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in the Maasai community in Kenya and have won many hard-earned victories, influencing community members to take on alternative rite of passage rituals, and educating women and men alike about the power of an educated girl.
Each year, hundreds of girls’ lives – and that of their families – are transformed because of their work and vision.
Turning Pain to Power, City of Joy in DR Congo
Photo Credit: Atong Atem
The City of Joy is a revolutionary leadership center for women survivors of gender violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is place where women turn their pain into power, a place that restores women’s sense of agency over their lives as they learn real, practical life skills to feed their futures, and connects them to the global V-Day movement, one billion strong. From the return of warmth and joy into women’s lives, to a reconnection to their bodies, to the feeling of empowerment each woman feels when she masters a new skill or acquires life-changing knowledge, the City of Joy gives women a platform to transform their pasts into fuel for a revolution of the mind, body, and community.
Over 1380 women have graduated to date. Over 1380 women have been educated, healed, and nurtured. Since the beginning of the program, these women have released massive trauma and horrific memories. And they have experienced pure joy – dancing, singing, learning and leading in community, no longer stigmatized for being raped but instead acting as forces of energy and determination. Today, graduates are teachers, journalists, business entrepreneurs, initiators of collectives, restaurants owners, and farmers. They advocate on sexual violence, volunteer in a self-created recruiting network for new candidates at City of Joy. Some are students, immigration workers, tailors, and herbalists. And other graduates are employed in the V-World Farm. The list goes on.
A woman who comes through the City of Joy is forever changed by it. She laughs more, she leads more, she gives more.
LEARN more about City of Joy. GIVE Joy, donate today.
JOIN US, support the urgent work to end violence against women and girls in Kabul, Narok and Bukavu. Your trust, generosity and vision make our movement possible!
With all our V-love,
Eve, Susan, Christine, Monique, Purva, Tony, Carl, Kristina, Leila, Roslyn, Anju & Swetha
P.S. If your gift is already on its way, thank you!
V-Day is a California 501(c)(3) public charity and is one of the Top-Rated organizations on both Charity Navigator and Guidestar. 31 December is the last day to make charitable donations in order to claim them on your 2019 tax return.
