Global Advocates Share Collective Voice to End Violence Against Women

By

This year at the 2nd World Conference of Women’s Shelters, there was no short­age of energy and enthu­si­asm, and cer­tainly no short­age of women. Representing 96 coun­tries, 1,600 indi­vid­u­als par­tic­i­pated in work­shops and inter­ac­tive dis­cus­sion ses­sions in an epic net­work­ing event, hosted by the National Network for Ending Domestic Violence at the Gaylord National Hotel and Convention Center in Washington D.C.

The con­fer­ence included an impres­sive list of speak­ers and pre­sen­ters, atten­dees and spe­cial guests. All types of roy­alty, from HRH Princess Mary of Denmark to Reese Witherspoon, and even for­mer U.S. President, Bill Clinton, made speeches and added to the col­lec­tive spirit of the crowd with mes­sages of sup­port, unity and hopes for a brighter future. Survivors and advo­cates alike came together for this spe­cial 4-day con­fer­ence to meet fel­low advo­cates and to speak about a global human rights issue — vio­lence against women. Despite the diver­sity of back­grounds, the women (and a hand­ful of brave men) were united by a sin­gu­lar pur­pose: to live in a world devoid of gender-based vio­lence. Read the rest of this entry »

Pillars of Inspiration: Guiding Survivors Through Transformative Healing

By

A 2009 sta­tis­tic showed that in Cameroon, 1 out of 5 women are vic­tims of rape and out of that per­cent­age, 1 of 3 of those rapes are incestuous.

Heading the fight­ing force against this unac­cept­able vio­lence against women in Cameroon is the Yaoundé–based, RENATA National Network of Aunties’ Association. RENATA, a non-profit orga­ni­za­tion, serves as a cri­sis response and sex­ual edu­ca­tion cen­ter, equipped with a hot­line, psy­cho­log­i­cal coun­selors, and other sup­port resources. Through psy­cho­log­i­cal coun­sel­ing and com­mu­nity sup­port, RENATA Aunties are advo­cates for the empow­er­ment of women, as well as lead­ers in open­ing up pub­lic dis­cus­sions about rape, incest and domes­tic bat­tery, top­ics which are extremely taboo in Cameroonian soci­ety. Read the rest of this entry »

A Cameroonian Breakthrough: Transforming Violence to Empowerment

By

Sarah Wright dis­cusses the power of trans­for­ma­tion for women sur­vivors of sex­ual vio­lence in Cameroon through the Clothesline Project.

The first time I par­tic­i­pated in the Clothesline Project, I was study­ing in Yaoundé, Cameroon, a Sub-Saharan African coun­try. I had been asked by one of my pro­fes­sors, who had been trav­el­ing around the world research­ing the global issue of vio­lence against women, to help her inter­view Clothesline Project par­tic­i­pants about their encoun­ters with sex­ual vio­lence and to describe their choice of scarf or t-shirt design. This exer­cise was meant as a chance for these women to release, in a cre­ative and reflec­tive way, their emo­tions and opin­ion regard­ing their expe­ri­ences. Read the rest of this entry »

a nice horizontal line A sanctuary where the body can rest and the soul can reveal itself.

© Copyright 2009-2012 Stillheart Institute