1. Monday, November 26, 2007

Advocacy Strategies for Placing the Fight Against Gender Based Violence on the US Foreign Policy Agenda

Event description:

Joan Timoney, Director of Advocacy and External Relations for the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children and Gerald Martone, Director of Humanitarian Affairs for the IRC, will discuss the IRC and the Women’s Commission’s efforts to build congressional support for passage of the International Violence Against Women Act.

Time: 12:00–1:00 pm

Location: IRC NY HQ, 11th floor, Conference rooms 11A and 11B

RSVP by November 23rd to Caitlin Kelley at caitlink@womenscommission.org

2. Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Moving Beyond Firewood: Creating a global strategy on household energy in humanitarian settings

Event description:

The collection and use of firewood and other fuel sources in humanitarian settings has been associated with rape, environmental damage, respiratory illnesses and other harmful consequences. Moving forward with the recommendations contained in the Women’s Commission’s Beyond Firewood reports, Erin Patrick, a fuel and firewood consultant, will describe the initiatives that have arisen out of the need to protect women and girls during firewood collection. These initiatives are now part of a coordinated global response to address the challenges related to household energy in humanitarian settings.

Time: 12:00–1:00 pm

Location: IRC NY HQ, 11th floor, Conference rooms 11A and 11B

RSVP by November 26th to Mihoko Tanabe at mihokot@womenscommission.org

3. Wednesday, November 28, 2007

A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant, and a Prayer

Event description:

Readings from A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant, and a Prayer, a groundbreaking collection edited by author and playwright Eve Ensler.  The writings are inspired, funny, angry, heartfelt, tragic, and beautiful.  But above all, they create a true and profound portrait of the effect violence against women has on all of us. 

Please join IRC and Women’s Commission colleagues Grace Cheung, Milagros Cruz, Janet Harris, Stephen Hanmer, Caitlin Kelley, Sarah Long, Steven Manning, and Nick Thomas for this special reading.  We are also delighted to welcome Jeanne Kaplan, a veteran Broadway actor and a teacher at HB Acting Studio in New York.

Time: 12:30–1:30 pm

Location: IRC NY HQ, 11th floor, Conference rooms 11A and 11B

RSVP by November 26th to Ping Lee at Ping.Lee@theIRC.org or call 212.551.2737

4. Friday, November 30, 2007, World HIV/AIDS Day

Film screening: SASA, A Film about Women, Violence and HIV/AIDS

Hosted by the IRC’s Gender Based Violence and Health Units

Event description: 

This film, produced by Raising Voices and the People’s Picture Company, is about the complex connections between violence against women and HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. It focuses on Ugandan women who experienced domestic violence and as a result were infected with HIV. They discuss how becoming HIV positive led to even more violence. The film shows how many women in East Africa are becoming activists in their own communities against the epidemics of domestic violence and AIDS.

Time: 12:00-1:00 pm

Location: IRC NY HQ, 11th floor, Conference rooms 11A and 11B

RSVP by November 28th to Meghan O’Connor at Meghan.OConnor@theirc.org

5. Monday, December 3, 2007

Preventing and Responding to Gender Based Violence (GBV): The IRC’s Experience

Event description:

A panel discussion with staff from the IRC’s Gender Based Violence, Health and Child and Youth Protection and Development Units. The panel will discuss how the IRC implements gender based violence programming across its various units and sectors.  Panelists will speak about GBV-related programs in their respective disciplines.

Time:  12:30-1:30 pm

Location: IRC NY HQ, 11th floor, Conference rooms 11A and 11B

RSVP by December 1st to Meghan O’Connor at Meghan.OConnor@theirc.org

6. Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Film screening: LUMO: One Woman’s Struggle to Heal a Nation Beset by War

Hosted by the Women’s Commission

Event description:

After being brutally attacked, Lumo, a young Congolese woman, is left with a fistula—damaging rips in the vaginal wall—that afflict thousands of African women who have been raped.  With her options for recovery uncertain, Lumo relies on her friends for support as they go at a hospital for rape survivors near the Rwandan border.  A discussion will follow the film screening.

Time: 3:30 pm

Location: IRC NY HQ, 11th floor, Conference rooms 11A and 11B

RSVP by December 3rd to Caitlin Kelley at caitlink@womenscommission.org

7. Friday, December 7, 2007

A Global Crescendo: Women’s Voices from Conflict Zones:  Women and girls photograph, analyze and act to combat violence against women and girls 

Event description:

Where are the voices of women and girls in the dialogue on gender based violence? Where are their voices in the decisions that affect their lives?  These questions motivated writer, photographer and long-time women’s advocate Ann Jones to search for answers. Working with the IRC’s GBV programs, Jones traveled to Cote D’Ivoire to talk to women and girls themselves. The result, A Global Crescendo:  Women’s Voices from Conflict Zones, gives women and girls who have survived conflict, displacement, discrimination, and violence a chance to speak. Supplied with digital cameras by the IRC, women were asked to document their own lives and communities. Through their photographs these women have at last made their voices heard.  Join CarmenLeah Ascencio, Program Manager for the Global Crescendo Project, who will present the work of women from Cote d’Ivoire and Liberia.

Time: 1:00–2:00 pm

Location: IRC NY HQ, 11th floor, Conference rooms 11A and 11B

RSVP by December 5th to CarmenLeah Ascencio at CarmenLeah.Ascencio@theIRC.org

8. Monday, December 10, 2007

A Journal Club hosted by IRC on Sexual Violence in Conflict

Event description:

The IRC’s Health Unit and Child and Youth Protection and Development Unit will facilitate a discussion on current issues in prevention and response to gender-based violence in conflict settings. Journal articles will be distributed prior to the event.

Time: 12:00 – 1:30 pm

Location: IRC NY HQ, 11th floor, Conference rooms 11A and 11B

RSVP by December 7th to Ela Anil at Ela.Anil@theirc.org