One Billion Rising: A global call for women

The following appeal comes from GABRIELA, a grassroots-based alliance of more than 200 women’s organizations, institutions, desks and programs in the Philippines. They seek to wage a struggle for the liberation of women and the rest of the Filipino people.

Dear friends,

Today, one in every three women on the planet will be raped or beaten in her lifetime. This is an atrocity.

In the Philippines, one woman is beaten by her partner or husband every 43 minutes while one child is battered every hour and 20 minutes. Eleven women die every day due to complications in childbirth. There are about 500,000 prostituted women and children. Poverty as a form of violence is a daily grind for more than 60 percent of Filipino women. Political persecution and violence against women human rights defenders is violence directed against women who have dared to stand up.

We REFUSE to just stand by as more than a billion mothers, daughters, sisters, partners and friends experience violence. Together with other women in the world, we have stepped up the fight to end violence against women. GABRIELA has joined the global campaign, One Billion Rising, and we are leading its Philippine counterpart. The campaign will culminate on February 14, 2013, and will be participated in by 114 countries all over the world (www.onebillionrising.org). You can also visit GABRIELA website — www.gabrielaph.com — for more information about our activities and campaigns.

One Billion Rising is a promise that we will rise up with women and men worldwide to say, “Enough! The violence ends now.” We invite you to please watch this short film for the One Billion Rising Philippines campaign: http://tinyurl.com/b6ypamx

We call on women around the world to call for justice for all women raped and murdered in India and around the world; we call on you to demand justice for the three Kurdish women activists assassinated in Paris; we call on you to support the Filipino women’s call for the Philippine government to stop killing, kidnapping and persecuting women human rights defenders and leaders who are defending their lands and livelihood; we call on you to demand an end to honor killing, mutilation and execution of women in the name of “honor”; we ask you to join in our fight to stop multinational companies and imperialist countries in pillaging our natural and human resources in the name of profit.

One woman violated is one too many. Rise, strike, dance with us. Join the One Billion Rising on February 14, 2013.

If you are already part of One Billion Rising, we hope that you can share with us your activities. (You may also visit our website and Facebook page to know more about the activities we have already launched in the Philippines).

In solidarity,

Joms Salvador (Secretary-General) and
Joan Salvador (International Relations Officer)

GABRIELA Philippines
35 Sct. Delgado St, Brgy. Laging Handa
Quezon City, 1103 Philippines
TeleFax: (632) 374 44 23
Email: gabwomen@yahoo.com