Following the successful response from the public, the ‘One Million Stars’ project is officially launched! To recap, the ‘One Million Stars to End Violence’ is a community-based project led by the Perak Women for Women (PWW) and Soroptimist International Ipoh that aims to combat gender-based violence across the globe.
The initiative was officially launched at 22 Hale Street, Ipoh on Saturday, November 25. The event proved to show the extent of its viral popularity amongst Ipohites as the premises was completely filled up with little to no leg-room to move around in; awareness being the by-product of this memorable and monumental occasion.
“The launch of this project today is in conjunction with the UN’s 16 Days of Activism to eliminate Gender-based Violence,” said Mabel Wong, president of PWW. “Children who grow up in a domestically violent family will be affected and the impact is far-reaching,” she added.
This advocacy project to end violence has been hosted by several schools around the city; in fact, the organisers have managed to get the message across to 2595 students in a period of only 10 days!
Making these stars have ultimately fostered closer relationships between family members and friends, who sit together to produce them – all for the sake of contributing towards a better tomorrow. As symbols of light, courage and solidarity, these stars hope to bring the spotlight to the once shadow-casted subject of violence and abuse which continues to plague the world until today and end it in all its many forms – potentially showing that general consensus amongst the community is and will be the winning shot against this great, intangible foe.
“Courage comes when you are in a group,” said Sumathi Sivamany, president of SI (Ipoh) “I know we can achieve a lot of things when we stand together.”
The stars will be on display at the AEON Klebang Mall from 10th December 2017 and will remain until International Women’s Day on March 8, 2018. They hope to reach the target of one million stars by then.
“Anyone interested in helping us out in our humble cause can do so by crafting these stars.” said Sumathi. “The stars can be deposited either at the PWW Centre or into the donation boxes that can be found around the million stars display at AEON Klebang Mall.”
For more information, please contact them at 012 521 2480 or 012 588 2313. You can also visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/1MillionStars/.
Jack Foo
