Youth organisation People Health Development (PHD) and CARE International in Cambodia will be hosting parliamentary members, ministries, local authorities and UN representatives at an event in Posen Chey District on 25 October 2015. The event aims to bring the UNiTE to End Violence Against Women Orange Day campaign to the attention of key influencers.
PHD have been organising Orange Day campaigns in schools and universities in Phnom Penh since 2013, with many students taking the lead in encouraging their peers to treat women with respect. The organisation now plans to take this campaign to the streets and is engaging with the government for their support to do this.
With CARE’s support, PHD aims to encourage local authorities in Cambodia—particularly in urban areas—to raise public awareness of the importance of preventing violence against women and to actively participate in campaigns within their communities.
CARE Cambodia Country Director Joanne Fairley says “We are very excited about this next step in CARE’s work to prevent violence against women living in urban areas. With our partner PHD broadening their reach to engage with people in communities and authorities taking an active role in supporting this, we hope that more and more people will stand up to say that gender-based violence and harassment is not acceptable in their community.”
These Orange Day activities are funded by the UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women and the event will be attended by UN Women Country Representative. “Violence against women is too often tolerated in Cambodia, and communities can and should do much more to strengthen their response,” she says. “Orange Day serves as an important reminder that violence against women and girls should never be accepted.”
The event will also be attended by two members of parliament—H.E. Hun Many and H.E Lork Kheng. H.E. Lor Kheng says that she believes that this Orange Day event to engage with communities at commune and district level is very positive for Cambodia. “Authorities at all levels need to be good role models to lead activities to end violence against women. This work will support timely and transparent interventions to prevent and respond to incidences of violence against women and girls.”
Launched in 2008, the United Nations Secretary-General’s UNiTE campaign aims to raise public awareness and increase political will and resources for preventing and ending all forms of violence against women and girls in all parts of the world. It is celebrated on the 25th of each month with approximately 76 million people in 50 countries joining either directly or through social media and networks.
The event to launch this event in communities in Cambodia will take place from 8.30-11.30 am on Sunday 25 October 2015 at Posen Chey District Hall. Following this CARE and PHD will be organising activities within communities and workplaces for the 16 Days of Activism to End Violence Women, which starts on 25 November, the next Orange Day, and continues until International Human Rights Day on 10 December.
For further information, please contact:
Pysal Eart, Gender-Based Violence Program Manager, Pysal.eart@careint.org Jenny Conrad, Communications Advisor, jenny.conrad@careint.org
View the Khmer version of this press release >
Learn more about CARE's work to end violence against women in Cambodia >
CARE is an international development organisation fighting global poverty with a special focus on working with women and girls to bring sustainable changes to their communities. CARE was founded in 1945 and has been working with Cambodians since 1973. CARE works with hundreds of thousands of people in Cambodia every year, particularly women who have migrated to urban areas, women and girls from ethnic minorities and rural women who are denied multiple rights. CARE has been working to end violence against women in Cambodia for more than a decade.