WITNESS'S BLOG
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Three women we want to tell you about
- Posted on 04.29.09
Related causes: Community, Human Rights
Dear Friend,
We are writing to tell you about our latest efforts to end violence against women and to ask for your support.
We've recently received a generous challenge grant that expires on June 5th. Starting today, each dollar you donate will be tripled. If we can raise $30,000 by June 5th, we will receive an additional $60,000.
Please give today as we work to end violence against women.
Everyday we hear about thousands of women and men all over the world who are fighting for their safety and dignity. Here are three stories we find particularly troubling:
* Abigail from Zimbabwe was involved with a civil rights NGO. Her involvement with this group attracted police attention, and they attacked and beat her -- hurting her so badly that she miscarried. Thousands of women and girls like Abigail suffer politically motivated violence -- especially during elections.
* Saeeda from Yemen had to leave school because of racial harassment. To survive, she became a ...Read More -
Related causes: Human Rights
My grandmother’s life intersected squarely with the unprecedented rise in life expectancy for all elders. This rise has also led to one of our greatest silent crises: elder abuse.
About same time Alzheimer’s began to cloud my grandmother's once sharp mind, she heard a knock on the door of her 3rd floor apartment in Des Moines, Iowa. She opened it to find a friendly salesman selling John F. Kennedy half-dollars made out of pure gold in a frame with a blue velvet backing. They made an exchange --she handed him a check for $900 and the swindler gave her one dollar in coins.
ELDER ABUSE IN THE UNITED STATES
For millions of elderly people in the United States just like my grandmother, living longer has also meant living in silent fear, battered and beaten, preyed upon, often quieted by shame. Elder abuse is a prolific problem that comes in many forms – physical abuse, emotional abuse, neglect and financial exploitation, with many elders suffering more than just one type of ab...Read More -
Peter Gabriel Meets with President of Mexico to End Violence Against Women
- Posted on 04.03.09
Related causes: Human Rights
Written by Rebecca Lichtenfeld
The time had come for the meeting we'd been planning for weeks. After a soundcheck for his concert later in the evening, Peter Gabriel, his wonderfully patient tour manager and I arrived at Los Pinos, the official residences and offices of the President of Mexico. We were met by Saúl Hernández of Jaguares, my colleague Tamaryn Nelson (WITNESS), Diego Luna, María Sirvent Bravo-Ahuja (WITNESS Partner Comision Mexicana), Patricia Cervantes (Neyra's mom) and others helping to make this meeting a sucess. We were all escorted into Los Pinos and seated in a beautiful waiting room.
The Attorney General of the State of Mexico unexpectedly walked in our waiting area, along with the Minister of the Interior and the Mexican Ambassador to the US. We all conversed for some time before Tamaryn, Peter, Patricia, Saúl, Diego and Maria were escorted into the President's office. The doors to our waiting area were closed as "The President was arriving." I saw the tr...Read More -
Image Is Everything
- Posted on 12.29.08
Dear Friend,
Pictures can change the world. They can reveal truths that governments want to hide.
Maybe that sounds like an exaggeration. But think about how images from Abu Ghraib forced the U.S. government to examine its torture policies in Iraq or how the video of Rodney King's beating galvanized a global response to police brutality. Or more recently how videos of monks being beaten led to an international outcry against human rights abuses in Burma.
At WITNESS, our job is training and supporting human rights activists around the world to use video to end human rights abuses in their countries. Can you help by making a tax-deductible donation of $35, $50, $100, $1,000 -- whatever you can afford?
Whether it's working with women's rights activists in Zimbabwe, community organizers ending forced evictions in Cambodia or groups tackling slavery in rural Brazil, WITNESS is there, training activists to use one of the most powerful weapons they have -- video that can expose...Read More -
WITNESS Seeding training
- Posted on 09.06.08
WITNESS is holding Seeding trainings in Venice, Italy and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
August 22, 2008
Program Coordinator for Europe and the former Soviet Union Violeta Krasnic trains human rights activists in Venic, Italy in conjunction with European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratization: Summer School on Cinema and Human Rights.
August 22-29, 2008
Program Coordinator for Africa and the Middle East Bukeni Waruzi trains young human rights activists from Egypt, Ethiopia, Liberia, Nigeria and Niger in conjunction with UNICEF Ethiopia.
For more information about Seeding Video Advocacy go to http://www.witness.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=30&Itemid=64
