Sam Dunaway | News Editor
Feb.14 was a day filled with love and cherished relationships, but it also marked the anniversary of a powerful movement called One Billion Rising. Abby’s House spent the afternoon educating Western students on this campaign to raise awareness on violence against women.
According to onebillionrising.org, one in three women in the world will be a victim of sexual or domestic violence in her lifetime. This adds up to one billion women and girls across the globe. The One Billion Rising movement began when people around the world came together to express concern and awareness of the issues that affect a large number of individuals. According to their website, One Billion Rising is the biggest initiative to end violence against women in history.
Of the various issues that this movement addresses, Abby’s House advocates and volunteers chose three to focus on this year: refugee and migrant justice, gender-based violence and prioritizing education. They encouraged students to take action by writing one thing that they could do to further the movement on a balloon. The empowering balloons were displayed throughout the event.
Junior Kevan Maloney is an Abby’s House advocate and helped educate students on this movement. When asked why One Billion Rising is important, Maloney replied, “It’s super important because women make up half the population of the world. And almost more than half of them deal with problems like this every day. And that’s super huge because no one should have to live like that. Period.”
Volunteer advocate Jessica Lang addressed the importance of this event at Western. “It being out here and being presented like this, people who don’t want to come up and have been in these situations know that they’re supported.”
Go to onebillionrising.org or visit Abby’s House to get involved in the movement.
Contact the author at journalnews@wou.edu
Photo by: onebillionrising.org
