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International Day of the Girl 2025

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As we mark International Day of the Girl on 11th October, I want to begin with a deep and wholehearted thank you. To all of you who have written, given, and stood beside us — we see you. It has been a full season of rebuilding, and your care — financial, pro bono, and human — has carried us through. We are utterly indebted. This year’s Day of the Girl theme is: “The Girl I Am, the Change I Lead: Girls on the Frontlines of Crisis,” and our hearts and minds turn to those born into war, displacement, and poverty—the ones most at risk of gender-based violence and trafficking. Despite hopes for peace and justice, the lived realities of girls in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Afghanistan, and so many other geographies in crisis remain marked by conflict and loss. And yet, as all of you who have been with us for years know, amid fear and uncertainty, we consistently witness extraordinary strength. At Footage, every day, we meet young women inside crisis zones and escaping war and conflict who refuse ...
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In Fierce Compassion and Devotion, We Continue

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Dear Friends, Family, and Supporters, We’re still here: marching, building, imagining. In this crushing moment, when so many are silenced, displaced, starved, erased, we are refusing to look away. In fact, we are choosing, daily, to show up: in our bodies, our work, our words, our communities.  We are choosing to make noise for those being silenced; to offer love where it feels like hate is winning; to hold hope in chaos.  As feminists, researchers, humanitarians, artists – as humans, we know that compassion is not soft, but rather it is fierce, active, constituted of response-ability. It is, as we say in all of our workshops,  empathy plus action .  And we truly believe it will save us. Today, we want to share updates:  Despite the loss of the majority of our funding, we continue to operate on the frontlines of crises .  Our FemSMS Ukraine work , with our dear friends and partners at  Project Kesher ,  continues to grow . As part of this tireless...
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Co-creating Democracy with Compassion - We Keep Showing Up

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As Pride and Refugee Awareness Month come to a close, we are holding what they have stirred—grief, hope, fury, compassion— always compassion —and anchoring ourselves in the knowledge that these are not just commemorative months; they are part of our DNA at Footage. Solidarity, advocacy, voice, and the grit and determination to keep showing up are stitched into our daily work and our devotion to those still made most vulnerable by conflict, exile, erasure, and the loss of democratic values. Indeed, today, in the U.S. and far beyond, we are witnessing democracy itself— democracy built by those who care, by collective voice, by generations of movements, love, and tireless effort on behalf of humanity —bend under the weight of authoritarianism, greed, surveillance, and the calculated silencing of the very people it was meant to include, uplift, center. Each day, we witness destruction wrought by those who seek power at the expense of those with the least. Those who dare to speak out are si...
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New research reveals four in ten women who experience violence in Kyrgyzstan avoid asking for help

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Since November 2024, Footage Foundation (Footage) funded by the U.S. Embassy in the Kyrgyz Republic, has been working with El Agartuu Public Association on a collaborative program to prevent and end intersectional violence across Kyrgyzstan. The first phase of the program was to conduct a needs assessment by consulting with government employees, non-governmental organization (NGO) employees and survivors/victims of violence. From December 2024 through January 2025, 108 people responded to the research. Footage and El Agartuu presented initial findings and insights at a webinar on June 17th, 2025. Key findings revealed that 73% of victims of violence suffer with poor mental health and seek counselling, while 44% reported that they avoid seeking help due to fear, stigma, or mistrust of authorities. Meanwhile, nearly 70% of government staff reported they’ve never received formal training on gender-based violence. The webinar provided an opportunity for discussion on how to build allian...
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Compassion is Refuge: Join Us Live World Refugee Day

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On this World Refugee Day, we are holding space for the  120+ million people —human beings with hearts and minds, just like me, just like you—who have been forcibly displaced from their homes, lives, dreams, and those they love. This means  1 in every 67 people on Earth  is now forcibly displaced. One in every 67 souls— whose stories are not only ignored or erased, but increasingly distorted, criminalized, and turned against them.  And far too often, we are taught to dehumanize. And once we do, brutality becomes easier to justify. This month, which holds both Pride Month and Refugee Awareness Month, we are reminding all who will listen that people are forced to flee  war, fascist regimes, criminalized identities, and the violence sanctioned not only by states, but by neighbors, systems, and silence. Heartbreakingly, unbearably, we are watching hateful narratives grow louder across the globe. Refugees are being criminalized. Families are being separated...
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Location: New York, NY, USA
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Pride and Exile: We Choose to Stand

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In June, as   Pride  and   Refugee Awareness Month  converge, we are reminded that for many in the LGBTQIA+ community—especially trans people—identity can be the reason for exile. Sometimes it’s not war or disaster that drives someone to flee,  but the threat—and often, state-sanctioned violence—that comes from simply existing. That is what we mean by  identity violence:  being targeted, silenced, or forced to flee because of who you are—because of the intertwined aspects of your identity, including gender, race, sexuality, ethnicity, religion, or other core truths. Identity violence refers to the harm, threat, or persecution someone faces simply for existing—for being seen as wrong, dangerous, or disposable. At Footage, this intersection is not symbolic. It is where we live and work every day—at the edges where queerness, migration, survival, and the urgent need for radical imagination meet. Across the globe, we are witnessing not just the erosion of ...
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Location: New York, NY, USA
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