TOGETHER We YOUnite! Footage supports 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence and Violence Against Women and Girls

    NEW YORK, LONDON, PARIS, KYIV, ALMATY, November 23, 2022 /24-7PressRelease/ -- On Friday, 25th November, Footage Foundation will launch its campaign: Together We YOUnite! 16 Days of Activism in support of the United Nations global campaign to raise awareness of gender-based violence (#GBV) and violence against women and girls across the world. Footage has a full calendar of events over the 16 days.

Dialogues of Displacement – a roundtable event sharing oral histories and artists' interpretations of the lived experiences of women and those who identify as female, forcibly displaced from Russia. All welcome, please register here

Shared stories from young women and girls who participated in the Girl-talk-Girl program and compassionate leadership training in Kazakhstan

A chance to hear about the work of Footage and contribute to our programs including Compassionate Cash and FemSMS on Giving Tuesday. Join us at our Insta Live broadcast

Publication of our ground-breaking HerConnectHer refugee report exposing an urgent need for operationalizing compassion in interventions to support refugees, especially refugee women and girls

The Dialogues of Displacement, online roundtable event on Monday 28th November at 4.30pm GMT shares the oral histories and artists' interpretation of the lived experiences of marginalized female-identifying participants forcibly displaced from Russia because of oppression and state sanctioned violence against women and girls and those from LGBTQI+ communities.

"Our Together We YOUnite! campaign is an opportunity to highlight the epidemic of violence against women and girls. And, at the same time raise awareness of the work that Footage does year round. It's 16 days of concentrated awareness raising in the 365 that we work to raise the voices of girls and women," says Footage Foundation co-founder and Executive Director, Dr. Kristen Ali Eglinton.

"At Footage we design and implement evidence-based programs, focusing on wellbeing and compassion, in the areas of inequalities, gender-based violence, and forced displacement. We work with some of the world's most forgotten young women including young women who have survived conflict in Syria, torture by ISIS, fleeing Afghanistan, horrors in camps in Libya, trafficking in Kazakhstan, oppression of LGBTQI+ communities in Russia, and intimate partner violence in the U.S., Ukraine, Russia, and Chile.

"Footage uses narrative and expressive approaches empowering young women around the world to connect as agents of social change. Our programs provide connection — a community for women on the frontlines of gender inequality where their ideas matter and their voices count," she adds.

The 16 Days of Activism will launch on 25th November, the International Day of Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls. The Together We YOUnite! campaign launches with stories shared from Kazakhstan where 20 young women from across the region participated in a Girl-talk-Girl (GTG) compassionate leadership workshop. Footage returned to Kazakhstan in October and worked in partnership with Rodnik – known for preventing trafficking in the region – with sponsorship from the U.S. Consulate and Embassy in Kazakhstan. The GTG program connects young women worldwide through digital storytelling to spark dialogue and change around the gender-based violence they've experienced.

"Working with young women in Kazakhstan I saw the skills they so naturally have are those very skills that constitute compassionate leadership," says Dr. Eglinton. "As compassionate leaders, the young women we trained to scale the program took action, listened deeply, collaborated, built trust, and acted creatively. These young women – young women we now have the privilege of calling friends and sisters – are the inspirational leaders we seek if we are to make the changes that are crucial to a safe future and compassionate world."

Alongside hearing the stories and lived experience of those who have been displaced and experienced gender-based violence, there'll be an opportunity to contribute and support Footage's work on Giving Tuesday, 29th November. Anyone interested in learning more will be able to meet the Footage team and hear about the programs through the voices of women leaders like Alyona Ivasyuk from Kyiv and Kazakhstan partner organization Rodnik, in an all-day Instagram takeover including an Insta Live broadcast.

Much of Footage's work in 2022 has focused on supporting those displaced by war in Ukraine and its impact in the surrounding region. Through its Compassionate Cash program it has provided young women leaders in Ukraine with cash resources for immediate aid including food, medicines and heating for those who are most vulnerable.

This year also saw the launch of FemSMS. The new program delivers trusted information through text messaging to women and girls and those who experience gender-based violence, offering hope and social connection. Through compassionate language and messaging the program aims to end information poverty, increase resilience and build belonging among displaced and vulnerable women in Ukraine and the U.S. and hopes to create a network of 'compassion advocates' in the coming months and in 2023. There's also an ambition to take FemSMS to Afghanistan.

A new refugee report from the Her{Connect}Her program will be published on 10th December, Human Rights Day. The report highlights an urgent need for operationalizing compassion in interventions to support refugees and especially refugee women and girls. It focuses on a detailed description of a compassion-based participatory multi-component intervention with refugee women from various cultural backgrounds. Practical recommendations drawn from the findings of the intervention are provided for services that support the mental well-being of refugees in fragile transitory contexts. Key data and stories will also be shared on 18th December, International Migrants Day.

To arrange to interview Dr. Kristen Ali Eglinton or participants in the events or to receive copies of the Dialogues of Displacement report or the Her{Connect}Her refugee report, please email: [email protected] or [email protected] with your contact information.

ESSENTIAL DIARY DATES FOR Footage Together We YOUnite! 16 Days of Activism against violence against women and girls.

Friday, 25th November: Stories from young women and girls from the Girl-talk-Girl program in Kazakhstan

Monday, 28th November: Dialogues of Displacement online roundtable event and exhibition. All welcome, register here

Giving Tuesday, 29th November: A chance to hear from Footage team, program participants and partners and, contribute to our work in an all-day Instagram takeover and Insta Live event

Saturday, 10th December: Human Rights Day, HerConnectHer refugee report published

Sunday, 18th December: International Migrants Day, refugee report highlights and stories shared

For images, video clips, social media assets, please email: [email protected] or visit our website.

About Footage Foundation: Footage is a U.S. based feminist organization raising voices to elevate lives through creative research, wellbeing interventions, and advocacy—all advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Footage has received nine Public Diplomacy awards from the U.S. Department of State to design and implement programs focusing on women and violence primarily in the Post-Soviet region. A nonprofit organization founded by PhD colleagues at Cambridge University, Footage uses narrative and expressive approaches empowering young women around the world to connect as agents of social change. Our programs provide connection — a community for women on the frontlines of gender inequality where their ideas matter and their voices count. We have a particular focus on forced displacement and gender-based violence and believe compassion and connection are as important to sustainable development as food and water.

To learn more about how you can donate, or join Footage in solidarity and advocacy, and help to raise the voices of those at risk from gender-based violence (GBV) and forced displacement visit footageproject.org and follow Footage on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

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