During the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence, the Zonta Club of Toowoomba Garden City Inc, Australia, made headlines and grabbed attention on social media in their local area due to their numerous actions saying no to violence against women.

Bringing orange
The club lit a local bridge orange throughout the 16 Days. On 25 November, club members marched back from that bridge to the downtown area. They also hung a ‘Zonta Says NO’ banner across one of the main streets and displayed Orange Ladies in businesses across town.

Engaging the youth
Club President Charmain Searle visited the Toowoomba State High School to inform the students about gender-based violence and Zonta’s mission.

Market stall
In collaboration with the Zonta Club of Toowoomba Area Inc and the Zonta e-Club of Queensland Inc, the club held a Zonta Awareness market stall to spread Zonta information and merchandise. Zontians Ansmarie Van Erp, Vanessa Priebe and Marie Cameron were also involved.

Campaign letter
Tarsh Francis, Advocacy Chair of the club, proposed conducting a letter-writing campaign to house local women experiencing domestic violence, which was touted in the local shopping centers. The letter garnered many signed letters and increased awareness in their community about Zonta and its mission.

Human Rights Day ceremony
On 9 December, the club participated with local authorities to hold a Human Rights Day flag-raising ceremony in the village square.

The Zonta Club of Herzogenaurach, Germany, was interviewed by Herzo TV, a local international television station, regarding the Zonta Says NO to Violence Against Women campaign.

Click here to watch the entire interview

During the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence, Zonta Clubs in Area 5, District 30, Bulgaria and Romania, did multiple actions to say NO to violence against women. Some of these actions included flash mobs, holding an art gallery and more.

Watch this video to learn more about how the clubs took action to say NO.

On the final day of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence, the Zonta Club of Santa Clarita Valley, USA, hosted a screening of Crushed Wings at the Santa Clarita International Film Festival (SCIFF). Written, directed and produced by British filmmaker Lalit Bhusal, Crushed Wings portrays the lifelong nightmare of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

The club has been associated with the film festival since last year through its Zonta’s Wome in Film initiative. When selecting the films for the festival, Lisa DeSousa, Founder and CEO of SCIFF, immediately thought of Zonta when she viewed Crushed Wings. She understood Zonta’s mission to fight violence against women and girls, including international initiatives against FGM. 

Zontians Cherise Moore and Lois Bauccio sat on a panel following the film to interview Lalit, who virtually joined the event from the United Kingdom. During the discussion, Lalit explained that he wanted to make a film about child abuse. People kept telling him about FGM as the ultimate example of abuse entrenched in certain cultures and wrongly attributed to religion. He has created the story of Ria, an innocent and happy seven-year-old village girl who is led to her nightmare by her mother in ignorance. The film goes through her childhood, adolescence, marriage and ultimate metamorphosis into a brave and independent woman. Some actresses in the movie are actual survivors of FGM.

Cherise and Lois explained the importance of ending global FGM and child marriage, which also addresses medical conditions such as obstetric fistula, crushing emotional health disorders and suicide and the social problem of keeping women in a subservient permanent under-class in cultures that practice them. 

To kick off the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, the Zonta Club of Makati and Environs, the Philippines, presented an art exhibition featuring the paintings, sculptures and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of the artist Carlos from 24-27 November. The exhibition took place at the Power Plant Mall, and a portion of the proceeds was donated to the Zonta Foundation for Women.

Carlos is a painter and sculptor whose career has spanned 40 years. He is best known for his vibrant colors, which are just as much a subject as the idyllic scenes he paints on his canvases. His work focuses on the joy of life, depicted in his subjects. His color palette encourages his viewers to savor and relish life’s moments of beauty, romance and love.

In honor of the 16 Days, several paintings and sculptures featured women as the subject of the works, together with their different roles. Beyond their roles in the family, which are usually depicted in art by renderings of mother and child, and which Carlos takes as a subject that goes beyond the literal, the artworks also offer depictions of their chosen professions, with some sculptures touching on figurative meanings rather than literal translations of their chosen roles.

This year, all 25 Zonta clubs and Golden Z club members in District 26, Japan, promoted the Zonta Says NO to Violence Against Women campaign all over the country to raise awareness of gender-based violence. Some actions that the clubs took this year included public demonstrations such as lighting up local landmarks in orange, marching through their cities, handing out flyers and more.