Ahead of the Zonta Says NO to Violence Against Women campaign, on 6 November, the Zonta Club of Kaohsiung YuHsiuan, Taiwan, teamed up with the Vietnamese Association in Taiwan and Taiwan Kaohsiung city government of social and welfare department to say NO to domestic violence and violence against women.
The event, called “Play to say NO to domestic violence,” focused on the increasing population of mail-order brides in Taiwan from Southeast Asia through marriage brokers and international marriage agencies. Not only do they struggle the adjustment of the new life in foreign land, but also encounter sometimes more severe problem like domestic violence. Together with the children, the impact of the domestic violence usually weight heavily on the victims and the community, and it only intensifies for the overseas brides.
The three-hour event also highlighted the play with metaphor of the misunderstanding caused by the language and culture barriers, the difficulties to integrate into the new family for the overseas brides and the actions to take to seek the assistance when violence occurs.
The Zonta Club of Kaohsiung YuHsiuan, led by President Grace Lin, sponsored the event and the play by providing fees, and two Zontians, Ms. Li-Hwa Wu and Ms. Ming-Yin Cheng, also participated in the play with the Vietnamese Association members. The script was based on a true story of a Vietnamese mail-order bride, with her personal experience and her ordeal of domestic violence sufferings with her two children.
The play made a strong impression on the audience and most important a powerful propaganda to the society as a whole through the mass media on the issue of domestic violence in general.
Lin was very pleased with the effect and the participation of all the members of the club. With self-esteem, self-confidence and independence for women in mind, she pledged that throughout her tenure in 2016-2018, the Kaohsiung YuHsiuan club will continuously promote on these agendas.
The immediate program following for Kaohsiung YuHsiuan Club is set on Dec. 16th, 2016~ “ZONTA GIVES LOVE~Holding Together, Hoping Forever”, a musical night for the breast cancer suffering women. It is a fund raising event with musical performance to help the patients after mastectomy.
All Zontians of Kaohsiung YuHsiuan are looking forward to the upcoming events and hope every of them will be as wonderfully success.
Join us in saying NO 