Dear PPSEAWA Sisters
Say NO – UNiTE to End Violence against Women is the new global outreach and advocacy platform launched by UNIFEM at the end of 2009 (www.saynotoviolence.org). The initiative builds on the momentum of the first phase of Say NO and is now focusing on showcasing and counting actions on ending violence against women. It is a UNIFEM’s direct contribution to the UN Secretary-General’s campaign.
I hope that you will find Say NO a useful tool to bring your actions to wider public attention. We can help by walking you through the process personally.
In just a few weeks Say NO has seen quite an extraordinary response – more than 22„000 actions have already been recorded, ranging from organizations organizing petition drives and 16 Days activities, religious communities reaching out to their constituencies, and individuals who want to make a difference. People from more than 191 countries have visited the website so far. More than 130 civil society organizations have joined as partners.
Say NO has been designed especially so that organizations like yourselves can showcase your work and share your experience globally. And, it’s easy to do. You can build your own web pages on the Say NO website to communicate about your activities. Please see some examples of “action pages” here: http://www.saynotoviolence.org/join-say-no/youth-say-no; http://www.saynotoviolence.org/join-say-no/16-days-activism-against-gender-violence-campaign-. The content from the action page is automatically pulled into various visible sections of the website and featured through news/ newsletters to a global audience.
You can create your organizational profile on http://www.saynotoviolence.org/join-say-no/start-action. As soon as we activate the account you can log back in to create multiple “action pages” for your different initiatives. Here’s some information on Say NO and how to use the website:
http://www.saynotoviolence.org/sites/default/files/organizers_toolkit/About_Say_NO_1.pdf
http://www.unifem.org/campaigns/sayno/kits/how_to_use_the_say_no_website.pdf
If you need assistance, please contact Urjasi Rudra, Coordinator of Say NO in UNIFEM’s Communications Team (urjasi.rudra [at] unifem.org (urjasi[dot]rudra[at]unifem[dot]org)). Please partner with us, showcase your initiatives and help send a strong message to governments everywhere that ending violence against women is a top priority.
I look forward to seeing the contributions from the Pan Pacific and South East Asia Women’s Association and its partners recorded on the Say NO site.
Rita Gibbons