How Ending Violence Against Women and Girls Became My Passion

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Source: care2.com

This is a guest post from Mwasapi Kihongosi. A remarkable young man from Tanzania, 24-year-old Mwasapi Kihongosi won the global UNiTE T-shirt design competition in 2011, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in March 2012 and led a Caravan for Change against violence and harmful traditional practices in November 2012. Mwasapi tells us how the plight to end such forms of violence became his passion. This was originally posted at UN Women.

I did not really know just how widespread violence against women and girls is in my country until one morning, approximately one year ago, the UN Secretary-General’s UNiTE campaign changed my life. It all started with a casual conversation I was having with an old friend of mine, who told me about a T-shirt design competition he had heard of and encouraged me to use my skills as a graphic designer to the global UNiTE campaign. Unsure of what this campaign really entailed, I logged onto the Internet and learned that the UN Secretary-General had launched a call for young people to design a T-shirt which would mobilize people from across the world to combat violence against women and girls.

“How is this possible?” I thought to myself as I was researching the issue in order to develop a graphic design which would take into account its gravity, but not over-complicate the key messages behind the UNiTE campaign. I was so shocked to read about the persistence of violence against women and girls in the world, and especially on the African continent.

As a man, I felt ashamed to read about the thousands of women who have fallen victim to violence and rape time and time again. Thinking about my own female family members, I was so touched by this phenomenon that I was determined to come up with a design which would embody that one feeling which unites us all: the determination to protect your loved ones from harm.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/how-ending-violence-against-women-and-girls-became-my-passion.html#ixzz2KpPZ38Yq

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