United Nations encourages grass-roots, community action
About a month after the Seventh-day Adventist Church launched EndItNow, a national campaign to end violence against women and girls, the United Nations announced a similar global initiative.
On November 6, the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) launched a Web site to encourage individual efforts aimed at eradicating violence against women.
The Say No - Unite to End Violence Against Women initiative's Web site addresses the widespread problem -- estimates say around 70 percent of all women have been victim to some kind of violence -- and demonstrates support by tracking efforts to combat the issue.
"We know that violence against women is a problem with solutions," said UNIFEM Executive Director Inés Alberdi during a visit with patients at a health clinic for women victims of sexual violence in Nairobi, Kenya.
"What I have seen first-hand today in Kenya is the impact of effective work at the grassroots level, yet there is an urgent need for governments to make this issue a top priority and take decisive action," Alberdi said.
Counting efforts by individuals, governments and civil society groups, the campaign has set a goal of 100,000 efforts against violence by March 2010 and 1 million by this time next year.
For more information about what the Adventist Church is doing to end violence against women and to sign the petition, visit
enditnow.org.<p>For more information about Say No, visit <a href="http://www.unifem.org/about/contact.php">unifem.org.
