The decline in child marriage is still slow. To end child marriage in Nepal by 2020, an accelerated effort is required. Zonta supports the Global Programme to End Child Marriage, which is working to end this harmful practice in 12 countries by promoting the rights of adolescent girls to avert marriage and pregnancy and enabling them to achieve their aspirations through education and alternative pathways. Join us in ending all violence against women and girls.
For the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, the Zonta Club of Cheektowaga-Lancaster, USA, District 4, is raising awareness of child marriage.
This year, the Zonta club will continue with some traditional projects, as well as incorporating new ways to advocate for women’s rights.
Throughout the 16 Days of Activism, club members read A Good Wife by Samra Zafar, an autobiography of Zafar’s own experience with an arranged marriage at a young age and the challenges and opposition she faced to overcome them and live the life she wanted.
Upon reading the book, many members were surprised to learn how drastically child marriage will affect the bride’s life and limit her control. It helped inspire many members to want to help, conjuring powerful emotions as they read about Zafar’s experience.
The Zonta club initiated a letter-writing campaign to discuss the importance of education in a child’s opportunity for economic independence. At the end of November, club members wrote and sent letters to Sen. Charles E. Schumer, asking him to support one piece of legislation, the Protecting Children Through Eliminating Visa Loophole Act S.742 and to co-sponsor S.1071 and the Keeping Girls in School Act.
Did you know that education can be one of the most powerful tools to enable girls to avoid child marriage and fulfill their potential? Through the Let Us Learn project, Zonta is creating opportunities for vulnerable and excluded children—particularly girls—in Madagascar with UNICEF USA. Learn more at https://foundation.zonta.org/Let-Us-Learn-Madagascar.
“With our major international project to end child marriage—whose victims are mostly girls—Zonta addresses not only a humanitarian issue, but one that also negatively affects societies. When girls become brides and subsequently mothers, this often ends their education. We advocate for every girl to have the right to finish school.”
—President Susanne von Bassewitz
For the past seven years, Zonta Bahamas has been at the forefront of activism to end violence against women and girls. Zontians have been out there in the community, on public and corporate platforms, bringing awareness and encouraging Bahamians to change the face of violence in this country.
This year, they were at it again, launching the 16 days with a big event in Rawson Square held in conjunction with the Department of Gender and Family Affairs, the Ministry of Health and NGOs. The launch was held on 25 November, the International Day to End Violence Against Women and Girls. The 16 days officially ends on 10 December, which is the United Nations’ appointed International Human Rights Day.
The club’s theme for this year is “From Activism to Advocacy.” One of Zonta’s partners for the 16 days this year, the National Congress of Trade Unions’ Women’s Association, is pushing for the Bahamas government to ratify C-190 – the International Labour Organisation’s Convention to end violence and harassment in the workplace.
It takes a lot of work to pull off the many events Zonta holds – and it’s all volunteer work. Kayla calls it a passion of hers and despite her busy professional life, she will continue to work hard for causes for the betterment of women and girls.
As part of the Zonta Says NO to Violence Against Women campaign, the Zonta Club of Prowers County, District 12, worked with the city of Lamar, Colorado to issue a proclamation. The proclamation declared the days between 25 November and 10 December as the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence.
Club members are also raising awareness of the issue of violence against women around their community by distributing posters and banners to local businesses.
This year, Zonta clubs in Germany broke a record by having a whopping 90 percent of its 130 clubs conduct a Zonta Says NO action. Together, the participating clubs lit up an estimated total of 700 bridges, landmarks, offices, banks and schools in orange light in alignment with UN Women’s campaign to orange the world to end violence against women.
In all 16 federal states from North to South and East to West, from the smallest rural towns to the major German cities, the country radiated orange on the night of 25 November as a symbol of hope against the problem of violence against women and child marriage. Famous buildings such as the Munich airport, Funkturm Berlin radio tower, Parliament building in Düsseldorf, St. Paul’s Church in Frankfurt, Alster Lake in Hamburg and even the world-famous football arena from FC Bayern in Munich, Allianz Arena, were lit up in orange light.
From the Zonta Club of Ludwigshafen-Pfalz, these photos showcase the nationwide effort to “orange the world,” where more than 100 clubs in Germany lit buildings in orange light and took to the streets to raise awareness of the problem of violence against women.
Zonta clubs around Germany worked tirelessly for months convincing local politicians, institutions, corporations and like-minded organizations to cooperate with them and join in the campaign. Some clubs, such as the Zonta clubs of Dortmund and Osnabrück Westfälischer Friede, managed to light up over 80 buildings in their town alone and others such as the Zonta clubs of Leverkusen and Moenchengladbach Area helped decorate city buses in orange.
This concerted nationwide campaign was accompanied by a huge press campaign on local, regional and national levels. The campaign appeared on German television, radio, online media, newspapers and magazines. The combination of the strong visual theme, the urgency of the problem, the concrete club activity, often in cooperation with other local partners and states, as well as the nationwide campaign, was powerful enough to garner the interest of the press.
Around 25 Zontians helped to make this happen by volunteering to join the national Zonta Says NO Action Group – an inter-district group with representatives from all seven areas in five districts. They developed a huge catalog of promotional materials with a graphic designer, a fellow Zontian. A flyer, poster, banner and roll-up in German, as well as branded umbrellas, scarves, giveaways and more, were designed and could be ordered and customized by all German clubs.
Furthermore, they developed a comprehensive press kit with facts and figures on all aspects of the campaign, thanks to the extensive research done by the German Advocacy Group, and provided the clubs with a press release template they could easily customize for their local activity. They worked endlessly to contact regional and national media and helped find interviews.
One Zontian managed to convince a production company to produce a professional radio spot, which many German radio stations aired at no cost.
Students in one district produced an outstanding video that clubs and other districts could use to motivate local state institutions and corporations to join the campaign. The Zonta webmasters for the German website and Facebook pages ensured the information was current, attractive and motivating for Zontians, the media and the general public alike.
This great success demonstrates the power of the Zonta Says NO to Violence Against Women campaign and what can be achieved if clubs join forces and a national committee or action group leads and motivates clubs, coordinates and consolidates activities and produces concrete tools and guides for clubs. That inspiration and concrete support of the clubs makes all the difference.
The Zonta Club of Bad Nauheim-Friedberg, District 28, organized a public display as part of the Zonta Says NO to Violence Against Women campaign.
They created a stage that held informational stands and a lightning campaign focused on “organging” the town in orange lights on 25 November.
There were about 200 people who visited the stage and were interested in learning more.
The club partnered with multiple city officials to put on the event and light up eleven buildings in the city area. Eighty shops were decorated in orange as well.
Zontians also handed out orange flowers and oranges in honor of the color theme.
Did you know that 90 percent of pregnant girls in the developing world are already married? Child brides face higher risks of death in childbirth and are more vulnerable to pregnancy-related injuries. Help us end child marriage.
Frankfurt glowed orange on 25 November in recognition of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence.
The buildings of Alte Oper, Paulskirche, Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, Deutsches Filmmuseum and DGB Gewerkschafthaus were all lit in orange lights.
In cooperation with the Women’s Department of the City of Frankfurt am Main, the Zonta Club of Frankfurt/Main and the Zonta Club of Frankfurt II Rhein-Main, both in District 28, together with other women’s networks, sent a strong message opposing violence against women.
Join us in saying NO 