1% Campaign

As a "Vagina Warrior", it's my duty to inform you of a new campaign that Eve Ensler has launched to draw attention to the possibility of a world without violence against females. According to the V-Day website, she is encouraging our leaders to allocate 1% of our nation's defense budget, approximately 4 billion dollars, toward the safety and security of women and girls. This money would be used to fund domestic violence shelters, rape crisis centers, and hotlines that are essential to the survival to thousands of women and girls every day. This campaign can be considered to be a "peace-keeping" effort right here at home, as it's estimated that one in three women in the U.S. will fall victim to rape, incest, sexual abuse, sex trafficking, or domestic violence in their lifetime. It seems a bit imbalanced that the military is spending billions of dollars to "protect" us while thousands of women are fighting in their own "wars" daily, often in their own homes. Unforunately, this "war" won't be viewed as a national concern until leaders put it at the top of their "to-do" lists. This won't happen unless socity demands that it does so. If we make this demand over and over again, the 1% Campaign will work, eventually leading to a movement that will change the world.

If you want more information about the 1% Campaign, please click here. In the meantime, consider the following statistics from the Family Violence Prevention Fund and RAINN:

• Nearly 31% of women report being sexually or physically abused by a boyfriend at some point in their lives.
• Thirty percent of Americans say they know of a woman who has been sexually or physically abused by her husband or boyfriend in the past year.
• In the year 2001, more than half a million American women (588.490 women) were victims of nonfatal violence commited by an intimate partner.
• Women are less likely to be victims of violent crimes overall, women are five to eight times more likely than men to be victimized by an intimate partner.
• As many as 324,000 women each year experience intimate partner violence during their pregnancy.
• Between 1993 and 1995, 18 of 32 states reported an increase in domestic violence filings of 20% or more.
• On average, more than 3 women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends each day in the U.S.
• The health-costs of rape, physical assault, stalking and homocide committed by intimate partners exceed $5.8 billion each year.
• One in five high school students report being physically or sexually abused by a dating partner.
• Forty percent of girls age 14-17 know someone their age who has been hit by a boyfriend.
• In a national survey of 6,000 American families, 50% of the men who frequently assaulted their wives also abused their children.
• More than half of female victims of domestic violence live in households with children under the age of 12.
• Studies suggest that between 3.3-10 million children witness some type of domestic violence annually.
• One in five women reported that they have been raped or sexually assaulted at some point in their lifetime.
• In 2003, there were an average of 223,280 victims of rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault.
• Every two and a half minutes, somewhere in America, someone is sexually assaulted.
• About 44% of rape victims are under the age of 18, three out of every 20 victims is under the age of 12.
• Ninety-three percent of juvenile sexual assault victims knew their attacker.
• About four out of ten sexual assaults take place at the victim's own home.