Compassion, collaboration and dialogue for change

“... violence towards women will never stop if we keep silence.”

F., GTG Kazakhstan, 2022

Today is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and the beginning of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. Since 1991, this global campaign has reminded us that when communities stand together, violence can no longer hide in silence or isolation. Around the world — including in the places many of us call home — women, girls, LGBTQIA+ people, and people living through conflict and displacement face escalating violence and dehumanizing rhetoric. Too often this is framed as something that happens “over there,” yet it is present “here” as well, shaping fear, anxiety, and normalizing the idea that some lives are treated as less worthy of protection.

At Footage, these 16 Days matter because community matters. Survivors who take part in Footage’s interventions often tell us they long not only for safety, but for belonging: to be believed, to be witnessed, and to be part of a community that recognizes their strength as well as their stories.

Over these 16 Days, we'll share testimony from survivors and participants who have chosen to share their experiences of violence. We believe their courage becomes even more powerful when communities like ours choose to listen, respond, and act together. 

Violence is never only a personal issue, violence is a community issue — and communities can change it. Gender-based violence runs through homes, neighborhoods, institutions, and digital spaces, but those same spaces can be reshaped when people refuse dehumanization and insist on connection.

For nearly two decades, Footage has brought together survivors, NGOs, educators, communities, and government allies through feminist research, evidence-based interventions, and participatory storytelling — across the United States, Ukraine, Chile, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and nearly a dozen more countries across Eurasia. Our feminist research interventions — including Girl-talk-Girl, FemSMS, and Her{connect}Her — use human-centered design, mobile digital stories, compassionate messaging, and narrative-based solidarity to spark dialogue and connection first among young women, queer, and other marginalized groups facing GBV, and then across wider ecosystems of care and influence.

This year, our work in Kyrgyzstan shows why collaboration and dialogue are urgent.Through our PowerTools Kyrgyzstan initiative with partner El Agartuu, we conducted a national needs assessment to understand what survivors, NGOs, and government staff need to prevent and respond to GBV, especially in the context of the country’s National Strategy for Gender Equality through 2030. Our assessment found that 73% of survivors of violence or abuse report ongoing stress or trauma, and many are urgently seeking counseling and support. Their distress is not their shame; their insights are evidence that must guide compassionate, effective policy and practice. Their voices call for better collaboration, clearer information pathways, and spaces of trust across institutions.

In early December, we will convene both a Voice & Participation Workshop and a Human Rights Day Stakeholder Summit in Kyrgyzstan, bringing together ministries, NGOs, and survivor advocates to strengthen coordination and survivor-centered responses.

These events sit at the heart of why Footage insists on dialogue and storytelling as tools of prevention: in a digital world, dehumanizing narratives spread at unparalleled speed, chipping away at empathy and normalizing sexual violence and criminal behavior, especially in humanitarian and polarized contexts. Many people — including men, who are statistically the primary perpetrators of sexual and gender-based violence and are therefore key to shifting harmful norms — want to help but do not know where to begin or what language to use, and so they stay silent.

Footage’s work begins with the premise that survivor stories are evidence, and that our feminist “dialogue diplomacy” approach to public diplomacy is not soft. When people hear real experiences, respond with compassion, and stay in conversation across differences, they begin to feel accountable to each other — shifting norms, strengthening collaboration, and reducing harm.

During these 16 Days, we will focus on compassion, collaboration, and dialogue — and gather our community in a few key ways:

• 25 November – International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women: Visit our Instagram, LinkedIn, and blog for stories and reflections.
• 2 December – Giving Tuesday: Join our Instagram Live to hear from team members and participants about compassion, collaboration, dialogue, and GBV.
• 3 December – Voice & Participation Workshop: Across Kyrgyzstan, bringing together government, civil society, and survivors.
• 10 December – Human Rights Day and Stakeholder Summit: Gathering in collaboration and focusing on survivor-entered responses in Kyrgyzstan.

Throughout the 16 Days, we will share stories from our What Would You Say to Her? series — survivor reflections voiced by actors to protect identities. These stories are designed especially for people who “don’t know where to start” but are willing to listen, making the reality of GBV feel closer and opening space for reflection in families, workplaces, classrooms, community groups, and online spaces. We invite you to take three minutes to watch or listen, notice what moves you, and, if it feels right, share a short response — through our What Would You Say to Her? page or on Instagram or LinkedIn — using the prompt “What would you say to her?” and tagging Footage if that is safe for you.

If anything you read or hear over these 16 Days moves you, we invite you to stand with us. You might choose to share a message with a survivor through What Would You Say to Her? You could follow, uplift, or speak about our work, or, should you feel moved and have not yet done so this year, you might consider making a contribution of any size. Each of these gestures becomes part of the collective work of refusing silence.

We will be in touch again throughout these 16 Days. We will ask you to help us continue building the spaces where survivors feel seen, heard, and held in community. Together, we can say to every survivor: We see you. We hear you. We stand with you.

Indeed together — no matter how difficult this year has been, and no matter how uncertain the years ahead may feel — we are determined to keep standing: for survivors, for connection, and for the world we know is possible.

For steadfastly standing with us, through almost two decades of 16 Days campaigns, we remain yours, in solidarity, in courage, and in compassion,

Dr. Kristen Ali Eglinton and the Footage team