Dear Friends,

SI Eastwood City and UNIFEM East and South East Asia Regional Office, under a Memorandum of Agreement, is intensifying the Philippine Campaign on Say NO to Violence against women which is spearheaded by the actress Nicole Kidman, the UNIFEM Goodwill Ambassador. Soroptimist International is a partner of UNIFEM in this project. This is in response to the appalling human rights violation where 1 in 3 women and girls may be beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in their lifetime. Equally upsetting is that most women don’t dare to denounce their abusers because they are afraid of further violence and of being stigmatized.

We invite you and your friends to `Speak out for these women’ and to add your names in the list attached to demonstrate that there is an ever-growing movement of people who demand that ending violence against women be a top priority. To sign in, please visit this website: http://unifem-eseasia.org/philippines/notoviolence/

UNIFEM will hand over the signatures to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in conjunction with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, 25 November 2008, to support his efforts. Let us rally to have the most number of signatories from the Philippines for this campaign.

SIGN NOW AND BE COUNTED!

Truly yours,