Starting Friday, March 28, women and young girls are invited to drop in to the Cowichan Women Against Violence Society to paint a t-shirt for the Cowichan clothesline.
Prevention of Violence Against Women Week is April 13-19. In 1995 the NDP government took the initiative to declare one week in April as Prevention of Violence Against Women Week in British Columbia. This decision effectively began a movement to encourage the public to express its commitment to reducing and preventing violence against women, as well as to raise awareness about the unacceptability of violence against women, youth and children in our communities.
According to the Men's Rape Prevention Project in Washington, DC, 58,000 soldiers died in the Vietnam war, and during that same period of time 51,000 women were killed mostly by men in the context of relationship violence.
This statistic became the catalyst for the Clothesline Project. The Clothesline Project is a vehicle for women affected by violence to express their emotions by decorating a t-shirt. T-shirts hang on a clothesline to be viewed by others as testimony to the impact of violence against women. This year, CWAV Society is creating a made-in Cowichan clothesline project to be displayed for the Prevention of Violence Against Women Week. Venues will be announced, details will be available on CWAV Society's Facebook page as well as the Facebook page Together Against Violence.
Women and girls can paint their shirts between 9:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. Paints supplied.