VDAY
TURNING PAIN INTO POWER
V-Day is a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls*. V-Day is a catalyst that promotes creative events to increase awareness, raise money, and revitalize the spirit of existing anti-violence organizations. V-Day generates broader attention for the fight to stop violence against women and girls, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM), and sex slavery.V-DAY also founded City of Joy. The City of Joy is a transformational leadership community for women survivors of violence, located in Bukavu, Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Conceived, owned, and run by local Congolese, the City of Joy has flourished since it first opened its doors in June 2011, healing women from their past trauma through therapy and life skills programming while providing them with the essential ingredients needed to move forward in life – love and community.
Serving 90 survivors of gender violence aged 18 to 30 at a time, City of Joy has graduated over 1200 women leaders since it opened in 2011.
The City of Joy is a project of the Fondation Panzi (DRC) and V-Day.