| V-Day in Kabul, Afghanistan
As part of its ongoing efforts to support Afghan women,
V-Day returned to Afghanistan March 8-11, 2003 to offer an
Afghan Women's Leadership Program to over 30 women from different
grassroots and community based organizations within Afghanistan.
V-Day Founder Eve Ensler and Executive Director Jerri Lynn
Fields participated in the program, which was convened by
V-Day's Special Representative Hibaaq Osman, in consultation
with political advocacy training expert Eleanor LeCain and
V-Day's Barbara Wein.
The three-day agenda in Kabul focused on building skills
in political advocacy and identifying the key challenges for
women through listening, supporting and finding ways to amplify
the work that the women are already doing on the ground.
V-Day has a history of supporting Afghan women since 2000.
In December 2001, V-Day participated in the "Afghan Women's
Summit for Democracy" (in Brussels), as one of the main
sponsors and donors. As a follow-up to the Brussels Summit,
Ensler and Osman traveled to Afghanistan in March 2002 to
participate in International Women's Day in Kabul, celebrated
there for the first time in five years. While in Kabul, V-Day
sponsored a series of roundtable talks on Afghanistan and
Pakistan, gathering together more than 100 Afghan women, including
the Brussels participants, to share status updates and feedback
on their situation and to encourage strategic alliances among
the women's groups.
While at the Brussels summit, the participants cited numerous
times that lack of communication (there was and is no telephone
infrastructure in Afghanistan) prevented them from effectively
working together on a common agenda. To bridge this gap, V-Day
provided and delivered at the Kabul talks over sixteen satellite
telephones to women's groups, including the Afghan Women's
Ministry, to build better communication and develop a network
among the groups. (www.vday.org/aghanistan)
Inspired by Playwright Eve Ensler's play "The Vagina
Monologues," V-Day is a global movement to stop violence
against women and girls that promotes creative events to increase
awareness, raise money, and revitalize the spirit of existing
anti-violence organizations. V-Day stages large-scale benefits
and promotes innovative gatherings and programs (The Afghan
Women's Summit, The Stop Rape Contest, Indian Country Project,
and more) to change social attitudes towards violence against
women. In 2003, more than 1000 V-Day benefit events - produced
by local volunteer activists - are scheduled around the world,
educating millions of people about the reality of violence
against women and girls and raising funds for local groups
within their communities. In its first year of incorporation
(2001), V-Day was named one of Worth Magazine's "100
Best Charities." In its first five years, the V-Day movement
has raised over $14 million, with over $7 million raised in
2002 alone. (www.vday.org/)
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