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Gratitude Breakfast
Monday, November 25; 8:30 am
by Allison Konick
When you think of the word "Gratitude" one word that comes to mind is thankfulness. What better time than Thanksgiving week is there to attend a breakfast that celebrates gratitude for this organization and for all women? To start off the breakfast, attendees were asked to share reasons for being grateful for the guest that they brought. This opened the morning with warm feelings as we listened to women speak in the highest regard of love, respect and friendship of their guests—whether it was a daughter, a mother, a coworker or a mentor. Hearing these comments just exemplified even more the sense of sisterhood that NYWICI strives to achieve.
The presentation began with actress, producer, and best-selling author Marlo Thomas. She spoke about how she was most inspired to join the women's revolution by her grandmother. She taught her that to take away someone's unique sense of self was in it's own way violence. Her grandmother grew up believing that she would not let any one put this violence upon her as a woman and she would stand up for herself no matter what and refuse to change for anyone. This has given Marlo the inspiration to join the fight against violence towards women: whether it is cultures that force young girls to transform and mutilate their bodies or the physical abuse of women everywhere.
Our keynote speaker, Eve Ensler opened her speech showing great enthusiasm that, "This is a Vagina Friendly Breakfast." And what better place to explain the history and future of her V-Day Campaign. Eve started this campaign to end violence against women all over the world. Eve wanted to use "The Vagina Monologues," where women would tell their stories of violence, as an aid to stop the violence against them. V-Day was her answer. V-Day was celebrated as an anti-violence day, victory over violence day and Valentine's Day. In 1998, New York City hosted the first V-Day, to great success! The next year V-Day was brought to 50 colleges with all shows sold out. That was just the beginning...it has grown exponentially each year. Last year, 2002, there were 800 V-Days around the world!
One reason that helps this program's success is the nature of what Eve calls "V World." She explains, "This is the underworld that is emerging of women who have been mutilated, raped, etc. who do not do it again to others but hold it within their own body and do whatever they can to ensure that it doesn't happen anymore."
Eve shared her own life experience with us, which helps us understand why this campaign is so close to her heart. On the outside her life looked happy and healthy but in actuality it was covered in violence. She shared a story with us that shaped her life and saved her. Eve had this idea of "Mr. Alligator" and when things were bad, she would call to him and say, "It's time for you to come." This sense of security she found in the idea of Mr. Alligator, coming has been what she strives to achieve with the V-Day campaign.
The V-Day Campaign has helped many, with one special woman, Agnes in particular. For the past eight years, Agnes has traveled from village to village carrying a torso box with a model of a vagina and showing what happens when young girls are mutilated. She was very effective in saving a number of young girls from this mutilation but could not do it all on her own. Eve was so supportive and asked Agnes if there was any way she could do something to help such a wonderful cause. All Agnes asked for was a Jeep so she could get to more places quicker to help more young girls, which she did, and has stopped 4,500 from being mutilated. When asked the same question again, Agnes asked for money to build a safe house. So she opened the V-Day Safehouse for Girls in Kenya. Recently, when Eve was able to see the opening of the completed Safehouse she said, "Mr. Alligator had finally arrived."
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