Zonta Says NO To Violence Against Women, it’s 16-day campaign began Monday, November 25 and runs through Tuesday, December 10. We will be running the campaign in three different sections (November 25-30, December 1-5 and December 6-10. The following is the second five days of the campaign.
Day 7 — Dec. 1 — Zonta is honored to have more than $9.5 million to support projects to prevent and end violence against women and girls in 46 countries through the Zonta International Strategies to End Violence Against Women (ZISVAW) Program since 1996. ZISVAW supports projects that seek to reduce the incidence of violence against women and girls by changing personal and/or political knowledge, attitudes and behaviors. From 2018-2020, Zonta has committed $2 million to UNICEF USA to support the UNICEF/UNFPA Global Programme to End Child Marriage in 12 countries: Bangladesh, Burkina, Ethiopia, Faso, Ghana, India, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Yemen and Zambia. An estimated 12 million girls are married in childhood each year. Child marriage violates girls’ rights to health, education and safety. And, it is not a problem that exists only beyond our borders. Child marriage is a human rights violation that includes hundreds of American girls. In fact, between 2000 and 2010, an estimated 248,000 children as young as 12 were legally married in the U.S. Almost all of them were girls married to adult men.
Day 8 — Dec. 2 — Zonta is passionate about empowering women in developing countries through international service. This work has included projects in Afghanistan to Guatemala to Rwanda to Turkey and from improving womens’ lives to providing safe cities to preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV and gender-based violence to providing care for orphaned children.
Day 9 — Dec. 3 — Zonta is currently providing funds over a 2-year period to support projects in Madagascar and Jordan: Let us Learn Madagascar is a UNICEF program creating opportunities for vulnerable and excluded children, particularly girls, in Madagascar to realize their right to an education in a secure and protective environment. .Zonta is providing $1 million to UNICEF in support of this program. In Jordan, another $1 million has been committed to UN Women to improve Syrian refugee and Jordanian women’s access to sustainable and decent employment, coupled with protection services and community leadership/engagement, to enable greater equality and reduced violence against women.
Day 10 — Dec. 4 — Zonta is proud to have given over $19 million to support projects benefiting women in 35 countries since its first international project in 1923. Through United Nations agencies and other non-governmental organizations, Zonta continues to work to improve women’s lives by increasing their access to education, health care, legal services and economic opportunities while supporting efforts to prevent and end violence against women and girls in all its forms.
Day 11 — Dec. 5 — Zonta is providing funding for women pursuing degrees in aerospace, business, technology and to young women ages 16-19, for demonstrating leadership skills and commitment to public service and civic causes. Since the inception of these educational program, nearly $13 million has been given to 2390 women in 188 countries. Locally, the Zonta Clubs of Frankfort and Lebanon funded a total of eight awards/scholarships last year. Five were awarded, as there were no applicants for the remaining three. Applicants must be a resident of the Club’s respective county. Collectively, they plan to offer nine scholarships in 2020 and encourage interested women to contact any member for details.