The Zonta Club of Adelaide Hills, Australia, launched its Expect Respect Project in 2012. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the club had to change its vision.

Goals of The Expect Respect Project. 

This awareness-raising and educational initiative involves children, adults and the broader community in a coalition to break the cycle of domestic violence. The continued prevalence of violence against women and girls, especially in recent years, is a massive challenge to Zonta’s vision for a world in which women’s rights are recognized as human rights and equality for everyone is a reality. The Expect Respect aim is to use education to create cultural change as a primary prevention strategy. While emergency care services and legal support are necessary, it is only through education that the leap in attitude and behaviors required for lasting change will happen. Further, education of the young is most effective at an age before poor habits can develop. The project is centrally and purposefully focused on education within and with the community.

How the Expect Respect Project works.

In a snapshot, the Expect Respect project is targeted at children in the early primary school years and incorporated into the school health and wellbeing curriculum. It is run over two consecutive years. Children learn about bullying, respectful relationships, safety laws and children’s rights. They attend workshops run by police and teachers, then continue learning in their classes. Posters are produced by the children reflecting their learning, and they then create a calendar for distribution in the community.

Young adults get involved as mentors and can help to produce the calendar. High school student leaders are often present at a community event where everyone celebrates what the children have learned.

The project grew rapidly from 2012 to 2019, reaching more than 1,200 students. That was the story up to 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, and lockdowns were enforced throughout Australia.

Initially, the inability of Zontians and the police to visit schools paused the project. Following the pandemic, the police service found it was under pressure and less available to do the school visits, which the club depended on to begin each project. As a result, some schools left the project. This shift caused the club to review and revise the project to make it more sustainable. 

As a result, the club strengthened the educational support by adding educators with various specialties that could be taught. Teaching units can now support students with more targeted lessons and a variety of different lessons to both broaden and deepen knowledge. One example is a retired elite STAR Force Police Officer and White Ribbon Ambassador, Derrick McManus, who conducts workshops on human resilience, teamwork and respect for older students. The club worked with Derrick on a lesson for younger students, and he now teaches a memorable message to “Fight the Fright and Do What’s Right.” This lesson resonates strongly with students ages 8-10. Police are still essential to the mix, but the project is no longer dependent on them exclusively. The club will further strengthen the in-class teaching by creating a 12-week teaching unit as an option for schools to use.

The club revisited the age group, identifying that children at age 8 are aware of others’ impacts on their thoughts and feelings and are ready to think about relationships for themselves. This cohort has two to three years following the Expect Respect training to be older buddies and mentors and grow in confidence with their relationship skills before entering the older world of high school.

The collection of evidence of student learning has been enhanced with lessons designed to show student understanding at the project’s beginning, middle and end. The multi-faceted project allows for the club’s involvement as they liaise with schools, plan and conduct displays and events, and work with media for promotion. 

In 2023, the club brought this revamped project to a new area, Blackwood, with a cluster of eight primary schools and one high school. They had one class in one school take up the project, but they have received great feedback, and already, the reputation is growing with people keen to get on board. Community leaders got behind it and promoted it through their words and attendance.

The benefits of the revised project were clear to see at the public event and launch of the calendars. The students stood before the crowd and taught us the affirmation with hand signals they had learned to “Fight the Fright and Do What’s Right.” The room resonated with the sound of appreciative parents and community leaders. 

The club’s vision is to have all primary school students in one district doing the project simultaneously. This vision will mean every child of the same age will receive the same messages over two years. The same messages will be present when they meet and mix in the community. The club hopes that we will see a recordable uplift in respect in the community when this happens. 

The Zonta Club of Matsumoto, Japan, held a Rose Day event in 2016 with the theme, “Children Are Our Treasures, Let’s Raise Them Together.” The club became aware of social issues affecting children and women through discussions with the participating mothers. Since then, they have organized eight events over the past seven years on topics such as sexually abused children and women, children’s rights and well-being and the current state of sex education and guidelines that should be addressed, leading to increased awareness of sex education.

The club has hosted five lectures, which 420 participants attended, three online training sessions with 140 participants and 25-30 Zontians attended each event. Cooperating organizations and officials from neighboring districts included the three city and three municipal boards of education, school education departments, elementary and junior high school teachers, those in charge of sex education in the field, nursery school teachers, kindergarten teachers, doctors, midwives and the lieutenant governor of Nagano Prefecture. Each time, the club’s activities were publicized through coverage in local newspapers and other media, as well as announcements and postings on social media.

In the future, the club will continue to work on a policy proposal to raise sex education in Japan from early childhood to compulsory education to the international level, first by having the Nagano Prefectural Assembly of the local government consider their policy proposals as a policy advocacy document, and then collaborate with each Zonta club in District 26 to expand policy advocacy in their respective local communities. Ultimately, they aim to continue thoroughly discussing and addressing them at the national level.

The Zonta Club of Gladstone Inc, Australia, conducted another successful 16 Days of Activism during the 2023 Zonta Says NO to Violence Against Women campaign by commencing at its orange November dinner meeting and culminating in an orange breakfast, which was attended by local state member of parliament, Glenn Butcher, and his wife, Theresa.

The club undertook some old and some new advocacy activities around town, including the following:

• At their launch dinner, they welcomed two guest speakers from the Gladstone Police Station, Cath Purcell and Vicki Dredge. They also donated two laptops for police officers to use when taking statements from domestic violence victims at home. Feedback from the police was that “the donation provides a greater ability for officers to take a typed statement in the field, from the victim’s accommodation, and will be a great support in collecting immediate evidence.”  
• The club distributed orange cut-out ladies for display at 31 local businesses, with some information about the campaign attached to each orange lady.
• During the campaign, they asked large local businesses to make their night lights orange. Participating businesses included the Gladstone Regional Council (Art Gallery, Council Chambers and the Anzac Park tree) and the Gladstone Ports Corporation. The Gladstone Ports Corporation lit up multiple lights focused on a tree-lined strip around a park, reflecting off the water around the park.
• The club joined the Raise a Cup campaign, which involved placing 500 stickers on coffee cups at four local coffee shops. The coffee shops were very eager to support this initiative.
• They raised awareness about the number of women killed due to domestic violence in Australia in 2023 by placing ladies and a tally of deaths on fences in three high-traffic areas in town.
• Two club members posted relevant posts and highlighted the club’s local efforts each day of the campaign, which gained significant attention from our social media followers.
• The club prepared an up-to-date list of local area emergency telephone numbers on the back of toilet doors.

The Zonta Club of Pori I, Finland, organized a movie premiere for the film The Last Kick on the International Day of the Girl Child, 14 October, at the local racecourse auditorium. The club managed to book the venue free of charge with the help of their network. The event was specially organized for the young stars, the children and teenagers who acted in the movie, and their proud parents. Special guests included Theatre Ulpu’s chairperson, Maiju Junko, who co-wrote the screenplay, young screenplay writer Oskari Huhtanen and Glad Media representatives Anu and Tomi Glad. Zontians and Soroptimist clubs in Pori were also invited to the event.

The club received great support from several local sports clubs and teams, some participating in national-level competitions. The club requested their logos to be used in the final texts of the movie as a show of support for their cause. The logos would manifest their stance against physical and mental violence and their support for equal rights and compassion. To their surprise, all the teams and clubs contacted provided 100% support. Many were already running similar “anti-bullying” campaigns and revising their internal codes of conduct. Additionally, the project patrons, Mari Kaunistola and Petri Huru, who are members of the Finnish parliament, were invited to the event. The heads of the educational and cultural services of Pori and Ulvila and local media representatives were also in attendance.

The film, which you can watch here, sheds light on the importance of ending bullying, its lasting effects on victims and hope still exists in the world. The movie premiere also aimed to teach the importance of valuing others, showing compassion, and appreciating different personalities from diverse backgrounds. Such values can help increase equality in society, both on a micro and macro scale, and build a better world for women and girls.

The club’s initiative went beyond their expected goals. This project is a true testament to the fact that where there’s a will, there’s a way. It also shows that when you have like-minded and kind-hearted people in your network, anything is possible. Of course, commitment and persistence are key to creating and achieving something new and unique. The club challenges everyone to think outside the box and step beyond.

After the premiere, the club received numerous thank-you notes and messages of congratulations from those who attended. They also received several requests to distribute the material to schools outside the original distribution area of Pori and Ulvila.

The club plans to interview students and teachers from various schools to get their thoughts and opinions on the movie and its possible impacts while providing question card materials. It’s important to understand that the problem of bullying is not just local but global. The club hopes that the movie will serve as a tool to decrease bullying and teach compassion, thereby changing many people’s lives, especially those who have been bullied or involved in bullying. The club hopes the movie will start a positive chain reaction and spread as far as possible. As the movie is available in Swedish and English, the club hopes it will reach the countries of fellow Zontians worldwide through this award application.

The Zonta Club of Albury-Wodonga Inc, Australia, partnered with local police family violence units to bring awareness, assistance and advocacy to their communities.

The club placed 16 1-meter-tall wooden orange ladies, who made their presence felt by making a colorful contribution and a QR code connection to helpful emergency numbers. They launched the 16 Days of Activism by holding a movie night to assist in funds for their gender-based violence project, and on 26 November, they supplied sausages and onions to the police, who were the cooks for a crowd of around 150 people over the allotted time.

The club’s goals were to:

• Stage an impactful 16 Days of Activism against family violence across Albury Wodonga.
• Attract participation by more than just service providers. 
• Increase media coverage.
• Build awareness of the seriousness and prevalence of violence in our community and what we can do about it.
• Provide men and women with an opportunity to take away new knowledge that will benefit their personal lives, their communities and organizations.
• Enable women to access information on existing services, resources and assistance.

The club attracted good media coverage through radio, newspaper and television, and other services joined them to complete the activity with a Walk Against Violence. They repeated this in a rural town and learned that the useful little survival packs they supplied to the police for distribution to women on that first escape night should also include men.

In rural areas, the local police find it safer and better to remove the perpetrator from the family home because resources for one are more attainable than perhaps a mother and her children. So, the club promptly supplied packs that included a small towel, a shaver and aftershave lotion.

Not only did the club’s activities build a better world for women and girls, but they also attracted a new member.

The Zonta Club of Cincinnati, USA, and the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) hosted a collaborative community exhibition, Wounded Healers: Transforming Pain to Wholeness and Health. This unprecedented exhibition featured drawings, prints, photographs and paintings that depict the personal and painful journey of physical, emotional and spiritual abuse leading to healing, hope and wholeness.

The month-long exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, opened with a reception for the artists, their families, and guests on Thursday, 9 November. This inaugural exhibition included 21 art pieces from 15 diverse artists who responded to an open call hosted by the club and the Contemporary Arts Center.

“At the Contemporary Arts Center, we strive to engage with issues of our time,” says Shawnee Turner, Director of Interpretation. “Supporting the Zonta Club of Cincinnati on such a relevant matter that impacts so many lives in our community while seeking to make the world better through art—this is why we’re here.”

The dates of the exhibition were selected to coincide with the Zonta Says NO to Violence Against Women and 16 Days of Activism campaigns. To further promote the campaign, the club hosted a kickoff for the 16 Days of Activism and a panel discussion titled “The Journey Of Healing,” featuring a club member, an artist and a psychologist, who shared their experiences of abuse and their journey to find wholeness and health – all held in the exhibit space.

The artists were honored and appreciative of the opportunity to share their work. “I am blessed. I would have never believed I would be showing art at such a prestigious gallery,” artist Laurie Ann Altman shared.

Through this exhibit, the club hopes to empower artists from the Greater Cincinnati region to bring awareness to the lived experiences of those seeking a world where no one lives in fear of violence.

Zonta Club of Central Tuguegarao, Philippines, finishes the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence with a bang!

For each of the 16 days, the club held at least one activity.

Day 1
Activity 1: Envisioning video.

Activity 2: Zonta Eco Angels Tree Planting Project at the Zonta Forest and Garden.

Activity 3: Simultaneous changing of Facebook Frame and cover photos.

Day 2

Activity 4: Alay-Agay 3.0 Indigenous Peoples Empowerment Program

Day 3

Activity 5: Zonta Information Caravan on Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response

Activity 6: Healthcare Information and Management Services Road Show

Activity 7: Tarpaulin display

Day 4

Activity 8: GWAPA 2.0

Activity 9: Cagayan State University – Carig Campus, GAD Seminar for 1200 Students

Day 5

Activity 10: We Remember Film Viewing held at multiple locations

Activity 11: General Membership Meeting

Day 6

Activity 12: Pinning of Orange Ribbon at Cagayan State University-Carig Campus In partnership with Golden Z Club of Cagayan State University – College of Engineering and Architecture

Activity 13: Pinning of Orange Ribbon at Cagayan State University-Andrews Campus In partnership with Golden Z Club of Cagayan State University-College of Business, Entrepreneurship and Accountancy

Activity 14: Pinning of Orange Ribbon at Cagayan National High School In partnership with Z Club of Cagayan National High School – Senior High

Day 7

Activity 15: ZCCT x Padday na Yena Cooperative Seminar with CDA

Activity 16: ZCCT honored with Plaque of Recognition at LCAT-VAWC Functionality Awards

Activity 17: All About Eve

Day 8

Activity 18: Bike Against Violence

Day 9

Activity 19: Memory Wall

Activity 20: 2-Day skills training for candle-making

Day 10

Activity 21: Kapihan para sa Kababaihan (Coffee Meet for Women)

Day 11

Activity 22: Men Against VAWC video

Day 12

Activity 23: Slogan and Poster Making

Activity 24: Student Signature Campaign

Day 13

Activity 25: Call to Action, Open Letter to Media

Activity 26: Lecture Safe Spaces And and Anti-Violence Against Women and their Children Act in partnership with the Golden Z Club of Cagayan State University – College of Engineering and Architecture.

Day 14

Activity 27: Leaders Speak video

Day 15

Activity 28: Day of Service at the Haven for Women and Girls

Day 16

Activity 29: Unveiling of Arts Against Violence

Activity 30: Awarding ceremony for the Search for Most VAW Responsive Barangay of Tuguegarao City