On 14 Feb., Kosovo joined 207 countries,marking V-day in the largest global action to end violence against women and girlsin history.
To mark the 15th Anniversary of V-Day, organizers launched V-Day’s most ambitious campaign to date, One Billion Rising.

“One Billion” derives from the statistic that one in three women experience violence in their lifetimes, and thus more than one billion women around the world have been impacted by violence.

The 2013 worldwide V-Day campaign encouraged one billion women and the people who love them to “Walk out, Dance, Rise up and Demand” an end to violence.
“It is one of the most attractive campaigns I have seen so far,” said Fitore, a participant in Kosovo’s One Billion Rising Event,“and I think that it has had a great impact.”

Volunteers ages 15 to 17 organized Kosovo’s event. The organizing committeeinvolved members of media group Kosovo 2.0 and the Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN). They created a One Billion Rising Kosovo Facebook page, and Kosovo 2.0 covered the event.AlbulenaShabani, an Albanian artist from Macedonia produced a promotional video. Two young organizers, Lindi and Andrea,performed a cover of Rita Ora’s song “Shine Ya Light” with a special shout out to One Billion Rising.

One Billion Rising Kosovo gathered men and women in Striking, Dancing and Rising at an outdoor street party on the platform of Pristina’s Youth Palace, DJ’d by OdaHaliti. Young and old joined the party, demonstrating their resistance to violence against women.
“Why don’t we have events like this more often?” A ten-year-old girl exclaimed. “Dancing in the streets is an excellent way to raise our voices about big issues like,” other participants agreed.

V-Day, held on Valentine’s Day, is a global activist movement that aims to end violence against women and girls. It involves different events aimed at increasing awareness, securing funds and supporting the work of anti-violence organizations. Through V-Day campaigns, volunteers and students have produced performances such as The Vagina Monologues; A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer; and other documentaries.