The 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence is an annual international campaign that kicks off on the 25th November, on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. This campaign runs until the 10th of December, which is the world Human Rights Day. It was started by activists at the inaugural Women’s Global Leadership Institute in 1991 and continues to be coordinated each year by the Centre for Women’s Global Leadership. This year’s theme focused on “Orange the World” a campaign run globally to raise awareness around the topic. 

This year the Rotaract Club of Colombo Mid Town in collaboration with Let’s Talk worked together on raising awareness around “Stigma and Discrimination” topics discussed by the youth community in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Initially this discussion came about as a random topic of interest with big thoughts and dreams coming forth, to launch the first campaign that highlights the “International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women” 

For the 1st day of this 16 day campaign we decided to put out facts and statements which have not been discussed or shared among communities in Sri Lanka in the form of social media posts. Gender based violence is not just violence against women but also includes violence against men as well, which is not well known. For a fact, most people are unaware that the 19th of November is the international men’s day. The only sign of awareness on this day is when people post hashtags or trends around these tag-lines on social media platforms. With the world relying heavily towards information generated through social media platforms a voice for change is an urgent necessity in raising awareness via youth groups & channels. 

On the 2nd day we asked the Mid Towners to go to crowded locations around Colombo, holding up placards with a statistical figure and asking random passersby the reason behind these figures. There was very minimal engagement around this, as people were extremely wary of answering questions posed by strangers and also because some couldn’t decipher what the figures meant. 

From day 3 onwards, it proved to be extremely difficult for us to move around in public with these placards due to having a twofold problem, of the pandemic on one hand and the lack of engagement from individuals passing by. Another reason was the inability of most people to comprehend this number game and we could not help them either.

Despite the lack of engagement in this 16 day campaign, we successfully managed to make people understand the relevance and importance of the 25th of November 25th. Yet, the secondary goal of creating awareness remains to be done. Let us hope and work for the best!

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