V-Day's ONE BILLION RISING: 14 February 2013

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NEW YORK, Feb. 14, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- V-Day, the global activist movement to end violence against women and girls, announces the final escalation of its year-long ONE BILLION RISING campaign. Today, women and men in 206 countries will come together in the largest day of mass action ever to stop violence against women and girls, to express their outrage, and to strike, dance and RISE to support an end to violence against women once and for all.

"February 14, 2013 will change the world not because it is a day of magic, although there are indeed mystical elements surrounding this campaign. It will change the world because the preparation for it and organizing for it has already created an energetic wind or wave igniting existing efforts to end violence against women and create new ones," said V-Day Founder and award winning playwright Eve Ensler. "It has brought together coalitions of groups and individuals that have never worked together before; brought in all kinds of new people and groups and associations and masses of men who are not aware of the issue but are now working on it; brought violence against women, through our numbers and efforts to the center of the discussion. On February 14, we are rising together because it is in our connectedness, in our stomping feet and uncontrollable hips that the path and energy will be created to bring in a new world. We will galvanize the will and the passion of everyone rising around the world to create change."

The campaign, launched on Valentine's Day 2012, began as a call to action based on the staggering statistic that 1 in 3 women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. With the world population at 7 billion, this adds up to more than ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS.

The campaign, which has been escalating throughout the year, is at a tipping point with activists in 206 countries signed on to take action and over 13,000 organizations around the globe participating, including Amnesty International USA, International Rescue Committee, NOW, Human Rights Campaign, AFL-CIO, Zumba, European Women's Lobby, WAVE (Women Against Violence Europe) Network, Verein Autonome Osterreichische Frauenhauser, Centro de Informacion y Desarrollo de la Mujer (CIDEM), Isis Internacional, Asmita Resource Center for Women, and MTV.

To read the full text of the release, please visit: http://onebillionrising.org/news/entry/v-days-one-billion-rising-14-february-2013

Sriya Karumanchi
Group SJR
917-267-2931
[email protected]

SOURCE ONE BILLION RISING