On December 8, 2013, WLP's partner organization in Malaysia, All Women’s Action Society (AWAM) closed their “White Ribbon Campaign” (WRC) for the year with a city-wide “Walk and Run” in Kuala Lumpur. WRC is a long-running global campaign against gender-based violence (GBV) with an emphasis on raising men’s awareness of GBV and their role in ending it. As part of the Campaign, AWAM posted a gallery of Malaysian men speaking out against GBV to their Facebook during the lead-up to the event. Roughly 3000 men, women, and children participated in the Walk and Run, concluding a year of WRC training sessions and workshops held by AWAM throughout Malaysia.
Runners get ready to run against gender based violence in Kuala Lumpur.
AWAM directly trained over 600 people in 2013, including members of other Malaysian civil society organizations (CSOs) and advocacy groups that will further disseminate the WRC message through their own follow-up trainings. The total number of Malaysians reached through WRC-trainings is projected to rise into the thousands. AWAM held WRC trainings specifically tailored for “male ambassadors” in support of WRC’s special focus on raising men’s awareness of GBV and encouraging them to speak out against it. AWAM also trained first responders on how to handle GBV-related incidents and raised awareness of the need for attention to these incidents. Trainings and workshops incorporated elements from WLP’s Leading to Choices (LTC) and Victories Over Violence (VOV) training manuals.
Over the course of the year AWAM released several press statements on GBV-related issues, in addition to their other activities focused on supporting women’s rights, economic justice and empowerment, male victims of domestic violence, and public/employer policies on maternal leave. AWAM also released a new video on December 10th to raise public awareness of GBV and its impacts. AWAM will continue to hold WRC-trainings and events throughout 2014.