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Bring V-Day 2007 to Your College or Community!

9/26/2006

1. Registration Opens Today for V-Day 2007 - Bring V-Day 2007 To Your College Or Community

Registration Opens Today for V-Day 2007. Join V-Day and the thousands of activists at colleges and cities around the world who stage V-Day benefit productions of The Vagina Monologues to raise awareness and funds to end violence against women in their communities. Each year between February 1 and March 8 (International Women's Day), V-Day events take place on college campuses and in theaters, churches, and cafes worldwide.

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 Monologiues playwright, V-Day Founder Eve Ensler, waives fees to V-Day benefit presenters of the play.

In 2007, thousands of V-Day benefits around the world will share the theme "Reclaiming Peace," making the connection between the worldwide anti-violence work of V-Day activists and our collective desire for peace/an end to armed conflicts. Additionally, each year V-Day spotlights a particular group of women who are experiencing violence with the goal of raising awareness and funds to put a worldwide media spotlight on this area and to raise funds to aide groups who are addressing it. The V-Day 2007 Spotlight will be on Women in Conflict Zones because war exponentially increases the crimes of violence against women and girls. In equal measure the strength and resilience of women in rebuilding their communities and leading governments to peaceful solutions will be celebrated.

Bring V-Day to your city, your community, your college, or your university!
To sign up, visit www.vday.org/signup

Join us. Help stop the Violence!

2. Lebanon Update from Karama Program
At the start of August 2006, V-Day's partners in the Karama Program issued a joint statement denouncing the violence that erupted against civilians in Lebanon and Gaza. More than 50 women's organizations in the Middle East and North Africa signed on together: "We are women leaders from nine countries across the Arab Region, linked through V-Day Karama, addressing violence against women from every angle of society and politics. When political and military violence erupts, our work begins there."

On September 2, 2006, the Karama partners came together in Amman, Jordan, to follow-up with a human rights forum and benefit event for Lebanese women's organizations. The event was a major success, raising more than $20,000 for three groups: Kafa (Enough) Violence and Exploitation Against Women, the Lebanese Democratic Women Council, and the Women's Rights Committee.

At the forum, women leaders from Lebanon, Palestine, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan discussed their concern that any country in the Middle East region could be the next target for such violence. They recognized the need for crisis preparedness in each of their countries and addressed their own readiness for the roles women's organizations play during crisis response, political or otherwise.

The women leaders seek to reach out to international social movements for new alliances and to maintain awareness of the damage done in Lebanon and other countries. A formal mechanism such as a tribunal was proposed to place consequences on the slaughter and displacement of civilians and the destruction of national infrastructure. Karama's partners seek to keep Lebanon's suffering present in public consciousness and engaged with social movements over the long-term, to help prevent such violence from erupting again.

3. Why Do A V-Day
This year, as organizers sign up, we have asked them to tell us why they are getting involved and staging a V-Day benefit production in their colleges and communities. Their words have been inspirational and moving and we wanted to share these two with you:


I participated in The Vagina Monologiues last year and it was an eye opening experience that upturned everything that I ever thought I knew about womanhood, sexual violence, abuse, molestation, femininity, strength, and myself. Hearing the real experiences of women unlocked the reality of my naivety towards many things that I always thought I knew so much about. My life has not been the same since I was invited to share these stories with the world and to take a stand against these harsh injustices and I can only hope to change others lives and opinions with each performance.

Asking me why I want to participate in V-Day is like asking me why I ate breakfast this morning -- I do it not only because I want to, but because I HAVE to. There is a drive within me to share these stories with as many people as I can because I know that there are other people out there who will be just as moved as I continually am. I cannot imagine not sharing the Monologues with other people, as they present the opportunity to stand up for what is right. If only one person in the show or behind the scenes or in the audience becomes inspired to take a stand, then I have done my job.

Jordan Long
Syracuse University


Stopping violence against women is something that should be important to all people (especially women), no matter their politics, religion, age, or economic status. I would love to see V-Day be an annual event that unites our community? I believe that if violence against women is truly to be stopped we have to get a majority of the population to understand the problem, promote awareness of the issue, and work to stop violence. So "until the violence stops" my personal goal is to bring V-Day to as diverse a population as possible.

Freda Grant
Huntsville, Alabama

Join us, be part of the movement to end violence against women and girls, organize a V-Day in 2007!

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