November 25th, the City Hall of Assen, among others, turned orange once again. With this initiative, the municipality of Assen says NO to violence against women and joins the global campaign Orange the World.

This year’s campaign theme in the Netherlands was: Safe, everywhere and always. The Orange the World campaign runs from November 25 to December 10.

The Orange Assen working group organizes and supports various activities during this period. Campaign Opening on November 25: The campaign in Assen kicked off on Saturday, November 25, at 5:00 PM at the market square with speeches from alderman Broekema and members of the Soroptimistclub Assen and Zonta Drenthe.

The market square was chosen for this event because harassment in the hospitality industry and on the street is addressed through the “Ask for Angela” project. This will also be highlighted during the opening.

The event concludes with a flash mob featuring youth from 1lovedancecenter by José Fraai. November 27 at 4:30 PM: Launch of Musical ART Video Clip The launch of the video clip takes place at Garage TDI.

In collaboration with Orange the World Assen, Garage TDI has created a video clip with young people from the theater pre-training. The viewer is made aware that violence against women occurs in various places in society. Violence can happen anywhere, where men and women gather; also at work, during social outings, at sports clubs, in public transportation, in education, in healthcare, in student associations, at festivals, at the beach, and not to forget in cyberspace.

After the launch, participants engage in a discussion led by the Center for Sexual Violence and Safe at Home Drenthe. The Musical Art video clip will be widely distributed on social media after the launch. November 29 at 7:30 PM Theme Evening in the council chamber of the municipality of Assen.

A theme evening on “Safe, everywhere and always, now and in the future” took place in the council chamber of the municipality of Assen. Anyone involved in work and/or volunteer work or who is interested was invited.

The evening began with showing the Garage TDI’s video clip and the short film “Dear Diary” about the present and the future. The theme of the evening was further introduced by the Center for Sexual Violence and Safe at Home Drenthe, followed by a speech from Alderman Jan Broekema and Provincial Executive Yvonne Turenhout discussing their approach to street harassment and social safety. Subsequently, a discussion was held.

December 9 Red Shoes at Koopmansplein Assen against Femicide On December 9, the municipal council members of Assen organised an action at Koopmansplein in Assen by putting 43 pairs of red shoes on the pavement, this is the number of women that were killed in 2022 in the Netherlands just because they were women.

This was to draw attention to violence against women and femicide. A pamflet was offered to Mayor Marco Out. Education in Action Drenthe College and the secondary schools Dr. Nassau College and CS Vincent van Gogh displayed the Orange the World flag and organized various activities for students, pupils, and staff to raise awareness about the theme “STOP violence against women”.

Businesses in Action More and more businesses, sports clubs, and socially engaged organizations in Assen color their buildings orange, fly the flag, display #Medestander (#we declare ourselvers ally ) posters, and/or use other means to support the campaign.

Zonta Club of Mitchell, a small club of 9 women, combined with the local shire council, police, health services etc.

We are a Shire with a very high rate of family violence. As a club, we thought that family is supposed to be a safe and comforting environment, like a blanket, so we proposed to use yarn bombing with orange blankets to bring to the attention of the local community, the scourge that is family violence and the voice that is Zonta.

We spent several months, crocheting and knitting orange squares, rectangles etc and used our gathering times to put these together into large blankets to fit various trees in our shire. We selected prominent trees in each of the four major towns, sought permits and approval and yarn bombed at the start of the 16 days or activism.

Signs were attached that explained the role of Zonta, and that Zonta says no to violence. Zontians took part in the walk against family violence and at the conclusion of the walk, there was public address from a victim survivor of abuse and the final tree in Seymour was bombed.

Many people asked to be photographed in front of our tree. There were articles in the local newspaper, reports on local radio and social media. The yarn bombing was removed at the end of the 16 days.

Even as we were sewing the blankets around trees we had people stop and ask what was happening, asking about the role of Zonta and the 16 days of activism. There were many comments about the orange trees.

After we had removed the blankets, the shire council contacted us to ask if we would be prepared to wrap a couple of trees in the pop up family park that the shire had constructed for the Christmas and New Year period, so the message of Zonta and No to violence is still out there.

As stated, we are a very small club in a small rural community, and this event has brought the work of Zonta into the public view. We have had some welcome enquiries from women thinking of joining, and offers from others prepared to assist with our work.

Members of 8 Zonta Clubs in Area 1, District 24 joined members of the Zonta Club of Sydney Breakfast in our annual ZONTA SAYS NO TO VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN walk across the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Wearing bright orange and carrying posters that explained who we are and what we are advocating for, drew shouts of praise and applause from members of the public walking across the bridge or enjoying time at Milsons Point and The Rocks.