An amazing night!

The second year of V-Day in the Capital is now done and I wanted to take an opportunity to thank all my friends and my family for their support, kindness, encouragement and help to make the night the success it was.

It is an event that has been months in the making and not easily done with planning often taking place with several time zones in the way. We were so fortunate with so many helping hands including friends and volunteers the night of.

Our cast was so talented and passionate: Erin Blaskie, Katherine Dines, Adrian Harewood, Alan Neal, Oni the Haitian Sensation, Sarah Onyango, Kerry Pither, Jason Tetro and Bill Welychka. I am incredibly grateful to them for their participation and the generous gift of their time!

Below is the speech I gave on Saturday.

Thanks again to all!


****
Good evening I’m Laurie Kempton and on behalf of V-Day in the Capital I am very pleased to welcome you to the second annual production of A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer.

Tonight you will hear stories about violence against women as read by our amazing cast. They are powerful, heartbreaking and hopeful.

Our theme tonight is about changing the story of women and girls. And we are pleased to be raising money for three organizations that are dedicated to doing exactly that.

Family Services Ottawa – has been serving Ottawa families since 1914. They work with individuals, communities, and families in all their forms, who are currently in distress or at risk. And they assist people to build on their strengths and move forward by providing counselling, education, and advocacy within a context of systemic change

CARE Canada – CARE is Canada's global force dedicated to defending dignity and fighting poverty by empowering the world's most vulnerable and greatest resource for change: women and girls. CARE was the first humanitarian agency to deliver relief supplies within the town of Goma in the DRC during the outbreak of hostilities in October and November, 2008.

And Panzi Hospital in the DRC – The Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, DRC is where the victims of survivors of sexual violence go in search of help. Under the guidance of Dr. Denis Mukwege, the medical team there do their best to repair both the physical and spiritual damage that has been done to the women and girls of the region.

Unfortunately, the number of women in need of assistance from Panzi Hospital, CARE Canada and Family Services Ottawa continues to grow. Violence against women happens here in Ottawa and everywhere around the world. Women aged fifteen through forty-four are more likely to be maimed or die from male violence than from cancer, malaria, traffic accidents, and war combined.

We have been particularly struck by the sexual violence against the women and girls of the DRC. In 13 years over 500,000 have been raped. Militias consider it risky to engage in firefights with other gunmen, so instead they assault civilians. They discovered that the most cost-effective way to terrorize civilian populations is to conduct rapes of stunning brutality. Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times, in his book, Half the Sky calls the eastern Congo the world capital of rape.

Eve Ensler, the founder of the V-Day movement calls it femicide – the systematic destruction of females.

We call it a moral imperative.

There are horror stories about the DRC that we could share tonight but we don’t really need to hear more detailed examples of how vicious the rapes taking place there are. Just knowing it is happening should be enough for us to take action. These women, these girls – they are our sisters, our mothers, our daughters, our friends. They are our fellow human beings deserving of both the dignity and support they are currently being denied.

Whether we like it or not, we are the authors of their stories both through our actions and our inaction. Dr. Denis Mukwege is engaged in a rebuilding project that is as complex and long term as that in Haiti or any other country, for he is rebuilding not just women's reproductive and urinary functions but he is helping them rebuild their souls.

As J.K Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series said, “We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already; we have the power to imagine better.”

So we ask that tonight, tomorrow or any day going forward that you imagine better. Imagine a better story for the women here in our community. And imagine a much better story for the women and girls of the DRC. Because if we can imagine better for them, we can do better for them.

We can help them change their story.

Help change the story

The statistic from the DRC is heartbreaking:

250,000+ women and girls raped in 13 years - more than 1,000 a month - by military and militia.

Their stories are gut-wrenching.

But we can help change that.

We can help the women and girls of the DRC - our mothers, our sisters, our friends - author new stories - stories of hope and victory.

Do you want to help? Can you help write a new story?

In Ottawa? Please come to A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer on Saturday March 13th at the Canadian Museum of Civlization. Tickets are $30. Donations are accepted at www.hopeangercourage.com

You can also visit www.vday.org and read more about the City of Joy being built to help the survivors of the worst sexual violence in the world rebuild and reclaim their lives.

Let's write a better story with them.

Random Musings

1) I get irritated when people think business travel is just like a holiday. Yes, I get to see some great, amazing places with my job but between January 4th and today, I have been home exactly 18 days. I've been on 5 continents and too many airplanes to count. All I really want is some down time. And my bed.

2) I feel like I missed the entire Winter Olympics except for the third period and overtime of the men's gold medal hockey game which was playing at the Canadian embassy here in Australia. But man, what a goal!

3) It is 10 days until A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer (http://www.hopeangercourage.com/) and what amazes me is how some people in my life who know how important this event is to me are silent about it and how some people I barely know are incredibly supportive

4) I love writing. I love writing fiction. And I love working out the characters and their choices in my head. I often feel like I'm just hosting them in my head before they get put down on paper

5) Ever feel like you're on the verge of something great with another person? That if you could just get your respective acts together what waits for you both is amazing? What do you do if obstacles keep appearing? Do you walk away? At what point do your arms get tired of holding that particular torch?

6) Daniel Craig is 42.

We should all take a moment to admire his gifts.

7) The second term of school is proving much more challenging than the first. But I will prevail

8) Invictus, the movie, was disappointing. The acting was great but the script was weak and given the story they had to work with, that's an epic fail

9) The pork buns at the Conrad Hotel in Hong Kong are worth the trip

10) The teddy bear they give you to cuddle at the Conrad Hotel in Hong Kong is also worth the trip