Спілка жінок Херсонщини

There is no justification for violence!

One woman in four suffers from violence in Ukraine! Only 40% victims are aware of their rights-violating. 13 calls concerning domestic violence are registered by the Kherson patrol police every day. There are 2 278 men and 163 women in our city registered as those to violate! We can't pretend anymore that the problem does not exist. It's not enough to speak but to act vigorously!

For that reason, on November 25, Kherson joined the widespread international campaign "16 Active Days to Stop Gender Determined Violence". During 16 days there were carried out lots of actions and activities in Kherson that were aimed to attract public attention to the violence problem. "Don't Leave Anyone Aside: Stop the Violence Against Women and Girls!" That was the slogan of the campaign under the aegis of the United Nations, and 30 plus organizations and action groups joined together to carry it out in Kherson. Zakhyst Kherson Community Foundation acted as a coordinator of the campaign in our city.

On November 24, the press conference "Launch of the international campaign "16 Active Days to Stop Gender Determined Violence" took place.

Before it started, the bright orange colour of umbrellas highlighted evening twilights at the square in front of the Regional State Administration Building.

Community activists, social workers, state officials, journalists, policemen, in-migrants from Donetsk and Lugansk Regions, the Kherson Women Union, representatives, students and other non-indifferent citizens became participants of the "16 Active Days to Stop Gender Determined Violence" campaign start and got involved to the "Flash Mob of Cities" highlighting orange the building of Kherson Regional Academic Musical and Drama Theatre named after M. Kulish.

The start of the international campaign "16 Active Days to Stop Gender Determined Violence" was announced on Skifiya TV Channel in a programme "Start the morning with us" on November 25, 2017.

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Creative sides of the campaign:

The Totem Cultural Development Centre creatively took part in the campaign. Its representatives opened four locations of "We Are Against Violence!" art-route across Kherson:

1. “In the darkness” project at the Central City Library named after Lesya Ukrainka (97 Potyomkins’ka Street).

2. “Folklore” project at KoKo Cafe (25 Gogol Street).

3. “And what did you expect?” project at Kherson Theatre named after Mykola Kulish (7 Teatral’na Street).

4. “When the colour is unwanted” project (6 Suvorov Street, Teacher’s Club).

The Kherson Women Union also was very inventive. They initiated the photo flash mob “Human Universe” that had been taking place on Facebook for 16 days of the campaign. The flash mob participants posted photos, which, in their opinion, were more eloquent expressing the inner beauty of a human than words, and added comments about a value of the images depicted in the photos.

Kherson TV was showing the animated public service advertisement devoted to domestic violence problem from November 25 to December 10, 2017.

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On November 26, Kyp'yatok Kherson Youth Initiative Group arranged a debate game "Understand while discussing". It was carried out as a part of the regional campaign at Oles Honchar Kherson Library.

Students and young activists took part in two rounds. And the third round was open and distinguished by experts and public figures' participation in the debates. The youth initiative was supported by Bohdan Rudenko (vice-director of the Kherson Social Services for Family, Children and Youth Regional Centre), Dar'ya Dobrynina (activist of the initiative "Kherson Is a Violence-Free Territory"), Olga Chebukina (Krym.SOS NGO representative), and Maryna Usmanova (Other Woman NGO activist).

Due to debate technology, guests and participants had an opportunity to focus on off-limits topics of violence in our society.

On November 28, 2017, the performance called “Women’s Voices” was presented at Kherson State University upon the initiative of Other Woman NGO.

More than 300 students listened to documentary stories of Kherson women and girls that had suffered from violence, performed by actresses of Kherson Regional Academic Musical and Drama Theatre named after M. Kulish. The same performance was shown to Kherson Marine Fishing Industry College students on December 01, 2017. More than 150 boys actively applauded supporting a necessity to destroy a gender-determined violence in the society.

The same day (28.11.17.) psychologist Olexandr Tanasuyk carried out the training "Violence in the Family: How to Protect Yourself?" at Oles Honchar Library. The participants learned how to tell the difference between a conflict and violence, talked about psychological, physical, sexual and economic abuse and learned their distinctive features.

On November 29, 2017, activists of the Kherson Women Union, NGOs-participants in the campaign and other citizens appealed to the City Council deputies with the slogans “He Beats ‘Cos He Can! So, Stop It!”, “Indifference Kills!” demanding to establish the Kherson Crisis Centre for women suffered from domestic violence.

At the beginning of the action, the participants marched beside the City Council building. There were women and men with placards in their hands: "Kherson Is a Violence-Free Territory", "Indifference kills".

The participants of the action marched along Ushakov Avenue from the City Council building to the Central city park, saying to each Kherson citizen: "Centre - Yes! Violence - No!", "We FOR Istanbul Convention!", "We FOR Establishing the Crisis Centre!", "Kherson Is a Violence-Free Territory".

The last autumn day (30.11.17) the Zoloty Klyuchik Children's Cafe hosted the training for high school seniors "Say NO to Violence!" and the announcement of the results of the competition for the best social placard "We Are Against Violence!" among schoolchildren.

The competition was carried out by the Leader Club of Kherson Out-of-school Centre (headed by S. Advokatova) and supported by the Kherson Social Services for Family, Children and Youth Regional Centre and Zakhyst Kherson Community Foundation.

56 pupils aged 8-16 from 19 educational institutions of the city took part in the competition. During the training, the youth presented the work they had done in their schools, guests and participants of the action made up a set of advice for a child to avoid violence in a family, at school or in the street.

Prizes, presents and tasty treats brought to the training the feeling of ease and a friendly talk. The demonstrative photo "The Youth of Kherson Region is Against Violence!" was taken as a keepsake.

Also, on November 30, 2017, the Kherson City Council Out-of-school Centre had an interactive meeting with the schoolchildren who were the activists of the Leader Club. The students presented their "home assignments" aimed for the understanding of the term "violence" and carried out a brainstorm in three groups concerning the problem "What You Must Do Facing Violence in a family, at school and in the street."

On December 1, 2017, the action was carried out with the support of the International Anti-Narcotic Association (Kherson), Zakhyst Kherson Community Foundation, Kherson City Council Social Centre of Services for Family, Children and Youth, OSCE observer Andy Offenbacher and 100 Percent of Life Charitable Foundation. It was aimed to popularize a healthy lifestyle, prevent HIV, alcohol and narcotic addiction. Citizens were handed out reading materials and given consultations as for domestic violence and various types of addiction.

On December 2, 2017, the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, the street action took place in Kherson. Volunteers informed passers-by of various forms of trafficking and explained to them where they should go if they face the problem.

On December 5, 2017, Kherson Communications and Printing Trades Professional Lyceum students visited the informational portal "A contemporary family without violence" that was working at Oles Honchar Library. They got answers to the questions "How to distinguish domestic violence in time?", "What should put you on your guard?", "Where to go in case of domestic violence?". The National and Patrol police representatives gave students competent and detailed answers. Leading specialist Oksana Sheringovs'ka presented the review of electronic resources of the governmental institutions and NGOs that can give legal, psychological, social help to those who had experienced violence.

That night the Skifiya TV Channel broadcasted a programme "The City", in which Larysa Polska (Zakhyst Kherson Community Foundation president), Anton Yefanov (Kherson City Council Social Centre of Services for Family, Children and Youth director) and Maryna Usmanova (Other Woman NGO's activist) discussed the ways of struggling with violence towards women and girls.

Also December 5, 2017, the training seminar “What is bullying? My choice is to say NO!” was carried out aimed to discuss the problem of bullying with the pupils of Kherson Youth and Adult Education Centre of Kherson City Council.

On December 7, 2017, the Kherson Women Union organized a unique flash mob as a part of the public campaign "16 Active Days to Stop Gender Determined Violence" at the Fabrika Shopping and Leisure centre in Kherson.

The PRIDE Dance Studio, the Harmonia on-stage performance group affiliated with Kherson Specialized Boarding School and a singer Victoria Babanina took part in the flash mob.

The emcee of the action was Olga Hmyrya, the well-known Kherson journalist, TV presenter and media expert.

On December 8, 2017, the Kherson Women Union supported conducting the discussion regarding bullying with the 8B class pupils of Kherson School # 50. The psychologist helped children to figure out the nature of bullying, its reasons and what to do with it. The children learned how to avoid being the object of bullying. They also watched a video about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE8pXPKgKaE

On December 10, 2017 (International Human Rights Day) the Nova Generatsiya Community Centre organized the street action called "A Child's Voice Against Domestic Violence". They handed out to passers-by informational leaflets in support of establishing the Crisis Centre for the women that had suffered from domestic violence. That night the Kherson Plus TV channel broadcasted the programme "Life Without Violence".

"16 Active Days to Stop Gender Determined Violence" were incredibly filled with activities.

Do not let violence get into your life!

Love and respect one another!

The author of the review - Lara Grek.

The sources - campaign participants’ Internet pages,

journalistic materials by Yuliya Mayner, Yuliya Tyshchenko, Yuliya Osypova.

Photos - Nataliya Nozhevnyk, Stanislav Ostrous, Lara Grek, the activities participants' web pages.

Translated by Anastasia Kistanova