Louise Nicholas ONZM (Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit) was the guest speaker at a Zonta Says NO to Violence against Women breakfast the Zonta Club of Christchurch South, New Zealand, hosted. Nicholas (second left) is a famous campaigner for the rights of women who are victims of sexual violence. Also in the photo (left to right) are President Sue Clark, Anne McMurtrie, Marilou Crequer and Gillian Parr.

The Zonta Club of Gladstone held a White Ribbon Day breakfast this week to kick off the Zonta Says NO to violence against women campaign and the 16 Days of Activism. Click here to see photos.

From gladstoneobserver.com.au:

Residents will see 78 orange cutouts in the shape of a woman placed around Gladstone by Zonta, over the next 16 days starting on White Ribbon Day.

Zonta president Catherine Benson said the signs represent each woman who has died in Australia so far this year through domestic and family violence.

“The club’s goal is to advocate for the prevention of violence and protection of women in the Gladstone Region and across Australia,” Ms Benson said.

“By displaying these cutouts we aim to show the community visually, the shocking numbers, but by no means diminish each victims story and their life that was lost.

Ms Benson said Zonta and the Gladstone Men’s Shed worked together on the project.

“The cutouts were created by Gladstone Men’s Shed Association which we then placed around Gladstone to be seen by the public as they drive or walk by,” she said.

“We all know the numbers are terrible, and we all need to do something about it.”

For more information on Zonta visit their Facebook page or email zontagladstone@gmail.com.

Zonta Says NO to Violence Against Women runs from November 25 to December 10 and focuses on service and advocacy actions that prevent and end violence against women and girls in local communities.

For the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, Zonta International and its local clubs encourage focus on prevention, protection and prosecution related to Gender Violence.

Orange female silhouettes appeared at eight retail outlets around Blenheim, New Zealand, on Wednesday, 25 November, and there is a colorful display at the Marlborough District Library. The displays are part of the Zonta Club of Marlborough’s Zonta Says NO to Violence against Women campaign. The silhouette display was covered in The Marlborough Express.

http://www.9and10news.com

Men and women came together on Wednesday, 25 November, to protest violence against women during a walk sponsored by the Zonta Club of Traverse City, Michigan, USA.

From 9and10news.com:

In downtown Traverse City, the Zonta Club led members and supporters down Front Street.

Marchers of all ages carried banners and signs protesting the violence against women.

Their goal was to spark change.

Students and staff from the career-tech center’s early childhood education class stopped by to show their support.

“Our students feel that predominantly as women that they want to be heard they want to talk about the things that matter to them and they want to end the violence.”

The march ended at the Traverse City open space.

On 25 November 2015, Zonta District 27 held a walk to raise awareness and was covered on Journal Regionnal de France 3. An aide worker that was interviewed stressed the importance of survivors of violence against women supporting each other in this act of unity and advocacy. Another participant cited in their interview that 235,000 women in France have experienced violence.

The Zonta Club of Kowloon is proud to sponsor the Hong Kong Association Concerning Sexual Violence Against Women “(ACSVAW”) in an iPhone application (“App”) development project “1st Action Moment” (“1AM”), the first free App in Asia to prevent gender violence against women.

1st Action Moment is a help-seeking and self-help mobile application based in Asia with the capacity to link up crisis centers and provide professional guidance to help-seekers. The App allows users to build a supportive network of 6 contacts to provide support to users in the unfortunate incidences of sexual attacks. Users can seek help from the supportive network through SMS capability and can be located through a GPS function.

The concept of the App “1 AM一點終” originates from an App called “Circle of 6” which was developed in USA aiming to help prevent sexual violence against women. The App won the White House 2012 Technology Challenge and was then launched and until 2014, recorded downloads in 32 countries.

The Club will provide funding for the IOS App development and first year maintenance,campus promotion and publicity of the IOS App to raise the awareness on prevention of sexual violence against women will be conducted in local secondary schools and universities, as well as future advocacy events in relation to the project (such as conferences/workshops/media programmes, etc.). The App also links the individual to crisis centers such as the nearest police station and hospital, as well as activates fake calls and alarm functions during an emergency.

On 25 November, the Zonta Club of Cotonou, Benin, joined UN institutions, civil society, donors and public services represented by the Ministry of Family to rally and say “NO” to violence against women. District 18 Governor Hortence Chekete gave a speech expressing the importance Zonta International fighting against violence toward women and on Zonta’s mission to empower women through advocacy and service. The activity combined animations, speeches and testimony.

Niagara Falls was illuminated in orange the evening of 24 November, ahead of Orange Day on 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Zonta Club of Niagara Falls, Canada, along with the Zonta Clubs of St. Catharines, Fort Erie and Niagara Falls, New York, USA, participated in the Candlelight Falls Walk to mark the start of the 2015 Zonta Says NO to Violence against Women campaign and the 16 Days of Activism.