Nov 25 is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women
Perhaps you know a mother, an auntie, a sister or a friend, who is receiving physical or mental abuse. Now is the time to help them speak up.
According to Oxfam Hong Kong, a violent act is committed against a woman every day, ranging from forced marriages, forced prostitution, beatings to murder and rape. Access barred to schooling, community meetings and other. Working in over 70 countries, Oxfam HK knows it is a global occurrence for women to face more poverty and more injustice than men.
A recent report from the Department of Social Sciences at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, claims gender-based violence by Hong Kong men against Mainland Chinese women has many dimensions: psychological, physical and economic.
In Mainland China, gender inequality is starkly prevalent as more than 90% of low-income sex workers experience violence. Females of all ages have come to be heavily mistreated in their society – most landless people are women, most children without an education are girls, most infants or fetuses killed are girls. This has led to a marked gender inequality and an imbalanced birth ratio, at 100:118.08 in 2010.
Gender violence could be seen as most brutal in South Africa, where 5 million out of a 47 million population have HIV or AIDS. A woman is raped every 26 minutes and a woman is killed every six hours. Oxfam HIV and AIDS Program in South Africa (OHAP) aims to tackle this pandemic and to help the victimized women to have a voice.
Oxfam Hong Kong supports WE CAN, which was launched in 2004, a campaign that bears the maxim “We Can End All Violence Against Women." It already has the backing of 50,000 “change makers,' who are expected to influence ten people around them and thereby triggering a chain reaction to change attitudes and behavior towards female abuse. This campaign specifically targets Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Nepal and Pakistan.
Be a link in the chain reaction at www.wecanendvaw.org.
Since 1981, women activists officially marked November 25th as International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women to commemorate the brutal 1960 assassination of three Mirabal sisters who were involved in political activities in the Dominican Republic. However, times could be changing as this year three women activists won the Nobel Peace Prize.