Be a Part of V-Day 2004 - Put on a V-Day 2004 Event in Your Community or College!

At V-Day, September is an exciting and busy month as we finalize the overall V-Day 2004 campaign and as we open up the process for applications for local activists like yourselves to put on a V-Day benefit within your communities!

Over the years since V-Day launched at the very first event in 1998, we have encountered incredible women working to end violence against women and girls in their communities. These women have often experienced violence either personally or witnessed it within their communities and dedicated themselves toward ending such violence through effective, grassroots means. These women have been the very heart of V-Day since it was conceived as a worldwide movement to empower and enable local activists to raise awareness and funds locally through V-Day benefit productions of "The Vagina Monologues."

This year, V-Day’s 2004 campaign will honor such women around the world whom Founder/Artistic Director Eve Ensler has named “Vagina Warriors.”

“Vagina Warriors know that the process of healing from violence is long and happens in stages. They give what they need the most, and by giving this they heal and activate the wounded part inside. Many Vagina Warriors work primarily on a grassroots level. Because what is done to women is often done in isolation and remains unreported, Vagina Warriors work to make the invisible seen. Mary in Chicago fights for the rights of Women of Color so that they are not disregarded or abused; Nighat risked stoning and public shaming in Pakistan by producing “The Vagina Monologues” in Islamabad so that the stories and passions of women would not go unheard; Esther insists that the hundreds of disappeared girls in Juarez are honored and not forgotten.” - Eve Ensler, August 2003, Rome, Italy

Eve’s complete essay on “Vagina Warriors” to follow. The complete V-Day 2004 campaign will be unveiled in October’s V-mail.

Each year thousands of activists at colleges and cities around the world stage V-Day benefit productions of “The Vagina Monologues” to raise awareness and funds to end violence against women in their communities. These events take place in theaters, churches, cafeterias, and arenas. In 1998, the first V-Day event took place, launching the movement. In 1999 there were 70 V-Day events and each year the number has grown so that in 2003, 1000 V-Day events took place in cities as diverse as Los Angeles, California, USA to Islamabad, Pakistan, along the way exposing millions of people to V-Day’s mission and raising over $4 million for local charities in 2003 alone.

For 2004, events are already being planned in India, Spain , Finland , Luxembourg and all throughout the United States and Canada

We are happy to announce that we are now accepting applications to organize local V-Day 2004 events which means you too can bring V-Day to your city, your community, your college, or your university!

To sign up, visit www.vday.org/signup/ .

You can make a difference in your community! V-Day events feature a benefit performance of "The Vagina Monologues." The money raised stays in your local community, supporting organizations that stop violence against women and girls. "The Vagina Monologues" playwright, V-Day Founder Eve Ensler, waives fees to V-Day benefit presenters of the play.

Organizing a V-Day event is a life changing experience both for the individual organizer and their communities – as two of our 2003 organizer’s put it:

“This was one of the most enriching, powerful, and community-liberating experiences we have ever had. It brought people together on many levels and bridged gaps between: generations, geographic communities, families, social organizations, and between the cultural and corporate communities.”

“This message that I have been scrambling to tell the world has reached a lot of people in a very short amount of time! A lot of work? Yes. But one man came up to me after the show and said "I have learned so much in the past two hours." If that is all I hear about this show forever in my whole life, it is enough. Because he will talk, and tell his friends, and they will think...and just maybe some change will be made. I do not plan to change the world in a day, but perhaps in a lifetime, day by day."

Bring V-Day to your community in 2004!
Join us. Help stop the Violence!

Sign up to organize a V-Day event www.vday.org/signup/.

To learn more about the V-Day College Campaign, visit www.vday.org/college/.

To learn more about the V-Day Worldwide Campaign, visit www.vday.org/world/.

We encourage you to keep the V-Day movement growing and join us, take an active role in expanding the movement to end violence against women and girls worldwide.

Be a Vagina Warrior. Celebrate Vagina Warriors.