V-Day

As most of us are happily or not so happily aware, Valentine's Day is fast approaching. However, why not take a break from your party planning, heart-shaped cookie baking, or romantic gift making to reflect upon the fact that Valentine's Day is not the only V-Day in town and some issues may be worthy of more serious awareness.

For more than a decade now, another kind of V-Day has been going strong, gaining momentum, and celebrating some much needed progress in an entirely less romantic but very necessary arena. This V-Day is a global movement dedicated to ending violence against women and girls.

Founded in 1998 by Eve Ensler, the award-winning playwright behind 'The Vagina Monologues', the V-Day movement aims to raise funds and awareness through benefit productions of this play, as well as through other artistic works. Issues being addressed by the V-Day movement include rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation, and sexual slavery. The 'V' in V-Day stands for Valentine, Vagina, and Victory.

In addition to benefit productions of plays, V-Day activities include screenings of the V-Day documentary, 'Until the Violence Stops', speakers, workshops, special performances by volunteers, activists, and others who support the cause, and ongoing consciousness-building campaigns.

The 2009 V-Day spotlight campaign is on the Democratic Republic of China, which is suffering in the midst of a rape crisis. According to Ensler, "What we're seeing in the DRC is a war being enacted on the bodies of women that is conscious and intentional - it is the systematic destruction of the female population of the Congo."

Ensler thinks there is hope in sight for these woman, going on to say, "But after three trips to the Congo in the last eighteen months, I have seen the spirit and strength of the Congolese women translated into a burgeoning movement which is turning pain to power." The Turning Pain to Power Tour is one of this year's V-Day components intended to shed more light on the plight of the Congolese women and help their burgeoning movement gain momentum.

Although V-Day focuses on issues of violence against women, men are welcome and encouraged to get involved, too. Indeed, in an Open Letter to President-Elect Barack Obama, written by Eve Ensler and other women's rights leaders and published in the Huffington Post January 13, it is stated:

"Yet these are not 'women's issues'. In fact, such investments are vital to economic growth and the well-being of all individuals, communities, societies and nations....

As policy makers, activists, researchers, and grant-makers we have spent our lives investing in women and know that these kinds of investments have immeasurable and fundamental impact for the better. Worldwide, women are uniquely positioned to bring innovative insights and creative solutions to global leadership forums. If we hope to improve existing economic, peace and security, and human development frameworks women must not only be included, but must be at the heart of the discussion...

We represent more than half of the world's human potential. And our time has come."

To find out more about V-Day activities, locate an event in your area, make a donation, or just become more informed about some of the issues at the forefront of the V-Day movement, visit the V-Day website at http://newsite.vday.org/