Stories from Kazakhstan Released on Largest Platform for Young Women's Voices on Gender-based Violence

    NEW YORK, NY, June 17, 2020 /24-7PressRelease/ -- The NGO Footage released digital stories produced by young women in Almaty, Kazakhstan on girltalkgirl.org—the largest platform for young women's voices on gender-based violence (GBV) worldwide—now available for public viewing. With both online engagement and domestic violence increasing globally during the COVID-19 pandemic, the stories offer the public a unique opportunity to learn about GBV from an international perspective and from young women themselves.

Young women, including survivors of human trafficking and university students, produced the stories based on their lived experiences when Footage provided its Girl-talk-Girl program alongside local partner organization Rodnik and with support and sponsorship from the U.S. Diplomatic Mission to Kazakhstan. As program participants, they joined Girl-talk-Girl's growing network of grassroots storytellers, already representing young women from the U.S, Russia, Ukraine, and Chile.

A public diplomacy initiative, Girl-talk-Girl has invited young Kazakh women to engage in peer-to-peer dialogue on an issue ever-present in the lives of young women globally. According to UN Women, 17% of ever-partnered women aged 18–75 in Kazakhstan have experienced physical and/or sexual violence within an intimate relationship. 21% have experienced psychological abuse.

Following the release on girltalkgirl.org, Footage is hosting a social media campaign running until June 26th and featuring the stories (@footageproject on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter), as well as an international online conference for program participants on June 27th, during which they will explore unique and common experiences of GBV.

For additional details and interviews, contact Dr. Kristen Ali Eglinton at [email protected].

A NGO founded by PhD colleagues at Cambridge University, Footage designs innovative, evidence-based programs that use local technology and expressive multimedia tools to improve well-being by bringing the underrepresented voices and experiences of young people into dialogue on the world's most challenging issues. Based in the U.S., Footage has worked internationally at the intersection of youth, human rights, and GBV for more than a decade.

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