Last winter I blogged about the rampant sexual harassment (and even assault) being aimed at girls in Ontario high schools. After four years of fighting for a Women and Gender studies course the fantastic Miss G_Project has succeeded in getting a pilot WGS course into high schools across Ontario.
The course “will benefit students of all genders and sexes, helping them dissect and then shed confining gender constructions. The course also has important implications for violence prevention.”
The founding members of the Miss_G Project (four Western University students) and those that banded with them in their campaign to fight, “the problems of sexism, homophobia, racism, classism and ablism that we had found so disturbing and disheartening in high school,” show what unwavering dedication can accomplish. This is a message to us all not to stand for bullying or harassment of any kind, to come together and stand against oppression in all its forms. Thanks for being such an inspiration, Miss_G!
Violence against women is an enormous problem around the globe. Approximately 1 in 3 women will suffer abuse and violence in her lifetime. UNIFEM are currently seeking 1 million signatures for the Say No to Violence Against Women campaign. If you want to take a stand against violence and for human rights sign the petition at any of the following places:
• SayNOtoviolence.org
• MySpace saynotoviolence
• Facebook saynotoviolence
by November 24th. “On November 25, UNIFEM and Goodwill Ambassador Nicole Kidman will present these signatures to the UN Secretary General.”
You can also grab a widget for your own social networking site:
• SayNotoviolence widget
And while we're on the subject of activism, yesterday I learned via RedMum that Ireland has announced their intention to scrap a cervical cancer vaccine program to vaccinate twelve year old girls against the HPV virus that causes cervical cancer. Ireland has a dire record when it comes to cervical cancer deaths (in this country of just over 4 million people it kills approximately 70 women a year) and only recently began a national screening program. Below Health Minister Mary Harney basically states that Ireland currently doesn't have the money to do it all. If you want to let her know that the health of Ireland's young women is a priority to you check out Ray Darcy's page on Today FM where you can email her directly or sign this petition to restore the cervical cancer vaccination program in Ireland.
Worldwide cervical cancer kills more than 273,000 women each year. In 2006, there were 949 deaths from cervical cancer in the UK. In 2004 3,850 women in the U.S. died from the disease.
There have been no serious adverse reactions to the HPV vaccine reported in Canada. The vaccine offers almost complete protection against the two types that account for 70% of cervical cancers” which means it's important to continue getting regular pap smears to check for that other 30%!
***Update November 12th***
If you're in the Dublin area and want to attend this weekend's demonstration:
Defend Women's Health Rally: Save Cervical Cancer Services for Girls and Women. Saturday, 15th November @ 2PM at the Spire, O'Connell Street.
