VDAY – International Women’s Day 2012

		ON INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY, WE CELEBRATE THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE WITHIN V-WORLDTHOUSANDS HAVE COME TOGETHER AND ARE RISING – JOIN US! V-Day celebrates women worldwide today and everyday. Activists everywhere inspire us and we thank and honor you all! This V-Season, over 5,400 V-Day benefit events are taking place on college campuses and in communities in over 50 countries and all 50 of the United States. Today alone, V-Day activists in seven countries including Canada, Spain, France, Switzerland, England, and Scotland, and in 18 of the United States, are activating their communities through events and teach-ins, raising funds and awareness to end the violence that afflicts one in three women worldwide. From European Parliament to Occupy Wall Street, from Austin to Belarus, V-energy is taking hold and ONE BILLION RISING has begun. Here’s a snapshot of the stories for you to read > We need everyone to join in our efforts, please take a minute right now to invite 5 women in your life to join us on 02.14.13. It only takes a few clicks > On February 14th, 2013 we will walk out, dance, rise up, and demand an end to this violence, but the work begins TODAY. Now is the moment that we must gather, harness our collective energy, and escalate towards this celebration. Today we must stand together and SAY NO TO VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS.   Sign up at onebillionrising.org Like us Facebook.com/vday Twitter: @VDay; #1BillionRising To get text updates, text BILLION to 50555 (US only)   SEND an International Women’s Day V-Card Celebrate International Women’s Day by supporting the global movement to end violence against women and girls. Make a donation to V-Day on behalf of friends and loved ones, and V-Day will send a specially designed 2012 International Women’s Day V-Card letting them know of their unique gift in their honor. Photo Credit: Paula Allen To send a V-Card on the donate page, check the box next to “Donate on behalf of a loved one?” labeled “Yes, I would like to send a V-Day e-card” and fill in the rest of the information to finish designing your gift. CLICK HERE to give this V-Gift >

 

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FOUNDER of VDAY

EVE ENSLER, Tony Award winning Playwright, performer, and activist, is the author of THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES, translated into over 48 languages and performed in over 140 countries, including sold-out runs at both Off-Broadway’s Westside Theater and on London’s West End (2002 Olivier Award nomination, Best Entertainment) and has been running for 11 years in Mexico City and Paris. In 2004, Ms. Ensler performed her play THE GOOD BODY on Broadway in NYC. This was followed by a 20 city national tour in 2005.

In 2006, Eve released her first major work written exclusively for the printed page. INSECURE AT LAST, a political memoir. In 2006 Eve also co-edited A MEMORY, A MONOLOGUE, A RANT AND A PRAYER, an anthology of writings about violence against women.

Eve’s newest work, I AM AN EMOTIONAL CREATURE: THE SECRET LIFE OF GIRLS AROUND THE WORLD, was released February 2010 in book form by Random House and made The New York Times Best Seller list. The book will be workshopped in July, 2010 at New York Stage and Film and Vassar College, moving towards an Off-Broadway production.

In the summer of 2010, Eve’s newest play HERE will be filmed live by Sky Television in London, UK. Eve’s other plays include THE TREATMENT, NECESSARY TARGETS, CONVICTION, LEMONADE, THE DEPOT, FLOATING RHODA AND THE GLUE MAN, and EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES. THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES, THE GOOD BODY, NECESSARY TARGETS, INSECURE AT LAST and A MEMORY, A MONOLOGUE, A RANT AND A PRAYER have been published by Villard/Random House. VAGINA WARRIORS, words by Eve Ensler and photos by Joyce Tenneson, has been published by Bulfinch Press for V-Day 2005.

Eve’s film credits include an HBO film version of THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES (2002). She also produced the film WHAT I WANT MY WORDS TO DO TO YOU, a documentary about the writing group she has led since 1998 at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women. The film premiered nationally on PBS’s “P.O.V.” in December 2003.

Eve has written numerous articles for Glamour Magazine, The Guardian, Marie Claire, Huffington Post, Washington Post, Utne Reader, as well as a regular column in O Magazine. She was awarded the 2011 Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award, which recognizes an individual from the theater community who has made a substantial contribution of volunteered time and effort on behalf of humanitarian, social service, or charitable organizations. Other awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship in Playwriting and an Obie, in addition to a number of honorary degrees. In November 2009, Eve was named one of US News & World Report’s “Best Leaders” in association with the Center for Public Leadership (CPL) at Harvard Kennedy School, and in 2010 she was named one of “125 Women Who Changed Our World” by Good Housekeeping Magazine.

Ms. Ensler’s experience performing THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES inspired her to create V-Day, a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. She has devoted her life to stopping violence, envisioning a planet in which women and girls will be free to thrive, rather than merely survive.

Today, V-Day is a global activist movement that supports anti-violence organizations throughout the world, helping them to continue and expand their core work on the ground, while drawing public attention to the larger fight to stop worldwide violence (including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM), sex slavery) against women and girls. V-Day exists for no other reason than to stop violence against women. In 2001, V-Day was named one of Worth Magazine’s “100 Best Charities,” in 2006 one of Marie Claire Magazine’s Top Ten Charities, and in 2010 was named as one of the Top-Rated organizations on GreatNonprofits. In twelve years, the V-Day movement has raised over $80 million.

V-Day stages large-scale benefits and produces innovative gatherings, films and campaigns to educate and change social attitudes towards violence against women including the documentary Until The Violence Stops; community briefings on the missing and murdered women of Juarez, Mexico; the December 2003 V-Day delegation trip to Israel, Palestine, Egypt and Jordan; the Afghan Women’s Summit; the March 2004 delegation to India; the Stop Rape Contest; the Indian Country Project; Love Your Tree; the June 2006 two-week festival of theater, spoken word, performance and community events UNTIL THE VIOLENCE STOPS: NYC ; the 2008, V-Day 10-year anniversary events V TO THE TENTH at the New Orleans Arena and Louisiana Superdome; the Stop Raping Our Greatest Resource: Power To The Women and Girls of the Democratic Republic of Congo Campaign; the V-Girls Campaign, and the V-Men Campaign which launched in 2010.

In late 2010, V-Day and UNICEF, in partnership with Panzi Foundation will open the City Of Joy a special facility for the survivors of sexual violence in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Conceived, created and developed by the women on the ground, the City of Joy will support women survivors of sexual violence to heal and provide them with opportunities to develop their leadership through innovative programming. Through its groundbreaking model, the City of Joy will provide up to 180 women a year with an opportunity to benefit from: group therapy; storytelling; dance; theater; self-defense; comprehensive sexuality education (covering HIV/AIDS, family planning); ecology and horticulture; and economic empowerment.

Eve Ensler – WOMAN of ACTION is Taking Action in the Congo