‘One Billion Rising’ Campaigns To End Violence Against Women In Kalamazoo

Downtown Kalamazoo was especially buzzing with activity on Valentine’s Day. Hundreds of supporters from around the community dance in solidarity to end violence against women. One in three women will be raped or beaten in her lifetime; one billion women will be violated. This was a day for communities to insist on change.

Local groups YWCA, Body Love Project, Interplay, Michigan Immigrant Rights Center and Fire were involved in the campaign as well.

 Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues, is the founder of One Billion Rising. She credits widespread coverage of  the gang rape of a 23-year-old medical student in Delhi, the shooting of the young activist Malala Yousafzai in Afghanistan, the brutal assaults of female revolutionaries in Tahrir, and the millions of other incidences of violence (physical, psychological, and social) that confront women in every country, every minute of every day.