What  are the 16 days of Activism? Let me tell you:

The “16 days of Activism” focuses on gender-based violence, specifically against women and girls. This campaign was created by the United Nations to bring empowerment to those who have survived or are currently suffering gender-based violence, and to bring awareness. Bringing awareness is also a way to educate more people about the issue.

Looking at the roots of things:

The “16 days of Activism” originated from “the international campaign originated from the first Women’s Global Leadership institute coordinated by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership in 1991.” Several groups and countries joined to contribute to this cause and help bring awareness to gender-based violence.

In the Women’s and Gender Resource Center, I take part in organizing events and thinking of ideas of how to bring awareness to certain issues. I proposed this event and I also organized the event for each day.

I personally chose to do the 16 days of Activism because I thought it would be a great learning experience and it was a way I could use my artistic creativity. It was very interesting to see how I spent so much time on the process of gathering thoughts and looking into what to do for each day. Researching and looking into the events hosted by the United Nations, I wanted to do something similar, but also something that would work well on Dickinson’s campus. I combined my creativity with how to bring awareness to an issue. I put myself in students’ shoes as well to see how I could encourage students to attend and follow the events for the 16 days. One thing I wanted to make sure of was to make the poster for the events eye-catching. Having a campaign like this on campus is very educational and a great way of bringing awareness to an issue and educating those who are unaware of gender based-violence. The entire process of preparation was a learning experience and also very fun. I am really interested to see the outcome because I put a lot of time and effort into the campaign and each event. Follow the WGRC Facebook page to participate each day.

You can also join us for two events:

• On Tuesday, November 28, come to Landis House 6-7.30 p.m. to design t-shirts that you can wear the following day.
• On Monday, December 4, we’ll be doing a photo booth and cupcakes at Landis from 12-1:00 pm.

Written by Zeineb Ettangi ’20, WGRC student worker