Stop the Violence

I'm certain that I have mentioned this campaign at least once in previous blogs. You may also have noticed that I have a little red and green button on the right of my blog that is entitled 'WAGGGS' Global Advocacy Campaign'. That's exactly what Stop the Violence is. It's a huge initiative started by WAGGGS and inspired by UN Women's campaign to raise awareness of this issue.

The Stop the Violence campaign was launched way back in July at a major WAGGGS conference. Things started happening, and WAGGGS began to filter information and ideas down to the World Centres just as I arrived at Sangam. Pax Lodge responded very quickly, and shared photos of a wall they'd created for people to share ideas and pledges about the campaign; it featured butterflies as they're delicate, like women:

Jen (my boss) emailed this around, suggesting that it was a cool idea, and maybe we should do something similar. I and the other SVs agreed with this sentiment, but we weren't sure that we wanted to do it in quite the same style. Whilst representing the campaign, we wanted to add our own Sangam/India twist to it. Finally I hit upon lotus flowers. As well as being the national flower of India, they also represent a lot of the qualities that we associate with women, and also show triumph over adversity. Perfect!

So I got to work. I researched lots of information about violence against women, I downloaded all the WAGGGS-produced materials (what little there was at the time), I made a box of bits and pieces so that anyone and everyone could decorate their own flower or make a pledge, and I created images and quotes about lotus flowers to go on the wall. It looked like this when I started:

And I hadn't really thought about the impact of the project. It was just another thing that needed doing; another project that I could get stuck into and complete successfully. I hadn't really thought about what it meant.

However, the more I read and researched, the more I saw the ideas and pledges that my colleagues were making when I pestered them to add something to the wall so that it looked fuller, the more I realised how important this issue is. In the work and volunteering I do, it's inevitable that I become aware of certain instances or unfortunate realities that impact on women and girls in a negative way. I never really realised (or perhaps never allowed myself to think about) the scope of it though. If you type 'violence against women' into wikipedia, this is what you get. The 'see also' section terrified me. Not necessarily because of its content (although a lot of it is fairly horrendous), but because the list was so long; the problem was so huge; how on earth could we ever prevent all of this from happening?!

That was the point at which this project became 'my baby'. In every session I ran, I mentioned the wall, and the accompanying box so that people could add to it. In every tour I ran, I stopped at the wall and explained the campaign. Every chance that I had to ask people to contribute, I took. The slogan for the campaign is 'from a whisper to a shout', and I wanted Sangam's voice to be heard loud and clear. Not everyone is comfortable adding thoughts about such a difficult subject to a public wall of course, but a lot of people have. At the moment, the wall looks more like this:

 (I apologise. I've tried to insert these photos 3 times and they definitely don't want to be rotated)

Hopefully you can tell that there is a lot more on the wall. We have the voices of over 60 people represented at the moment, and I'm sure that it will continue to grow. We've done other things here at Sangam as well. WAGGGS joined up with a young female filmmaker in Zambia to show a film called 'Hidden Truth' and hold a webinar with the filmmaker. We joined this live during our HIV/AIDS seminar, and it really hit home to many of us how real violence is for many women around the world. It was also during this session that Christa and I launched the Friendship Bracelet project; an idea that had been kicking around for a while, and that we decided would be a great way to spread the word about the STV campaign even further. This campaign has also really taken off and flown, so I think I can feel proud that I've achieved something during my time here!

We were rewarded for all our efforts in promoting the campaign and making Sangam's voice louder, when WAGGGS announced that it had selected the 25 MOs (Member Organisations) that would pilot the Stop the Violence curriculum that they're planning to create. Sangam is one of them! We've already filled in questionnaires to let WAGGGS know what we'd like to see, what we already know, how we deal with presenting difficult topics, what support people will need to run the curriculum etc. It's really exciting, and I'm a little disappointed that I have to leave and can't remain involved, although GirlGuiding UK is also a piloting country, so hopefully I might be able to help out when I get home.

Finally, the thing that made me finally write this blog up in full (a draft has been sitting around for ages) is that I took my turn to run the meeting of the 6th Nevedita Guides last week. The group meets at Sangam every Sunday, and Sayali, Aarti and Priya - our VITs - are a part of the group. For my session, I did an introduction to the Stop the Violence campaign. It took me ages to decide what to do - it wouldn't be fair to march in and give them loads of cold, hard facts about violence that women suffer, but I also wanted to make sure that they understood the significance, and felt like they, as girl guides, could help to make a difference. So I used a couple of 'getting louder games' to emphasise the campaign's 'whisper to a shout' element, and the importance of people talking about the issues; if we don't talk, we'll never fix them. Then I explained about the lotus flowers. I asked that they write something that was relevant; and focused on ideas about empowerment; they could write a personal goal for themselves, or something that they think women should be allowed to do, etc. What I got was amazing. A set of flowers that mentioned early marriage in India, the importance of women, to love life, the importance of education, and to hate violence. They were great. I also felt a little sad though, that even though I'd not mentioned any ideas, but only said the phrase 'violence against women', these girls were able to come up with relevant things to write about. Which I guess just emphasises again exactly how important the campaign is.

Em came to the session with me and filmed some shots, so I made this video to show that Sangam - and girl guides - are behind the campaign and are spreading awareness; adding our voices. I'm certain that this isn't the end of my involvement with this campaign, or with the issue in general. I may not have started out promoting this campaign because of my own understanding and passion for it, but now I understand - as much as I think I can do - and I am passionate about it. So I will continue to raise my voice from a whisper to a shout, and to encourage others to do the same. I will continue to advocate about issues that affect women and girls, and I will continue to support others who are also trying to make a positive difference. In short, I will continue to be a Girl Guide. I will continue to be me.

TTFN