Put your foot down!

More than 15 million women are living with HIV globally and every half minute another becomes infected. Widespread violence against women and girls is at the heart of these statistics.

A girl born in South Africa has a 50% chance of being. With 5 million South Africans living with HIV the risk of infection for these young women is extremely high.  And once infected, HIV positive women are accused of bringing HIV into their homes and face violence, eviction and economic destitution as a result.

Back on World AIDS Day, ActionAid decided to do something about this, with the launch of our put your foot down campaign.  We asked you to help us persuade the UK government to take action on violence against women - by contributing a shoe.

We wanted 2876 people to take part in the campaign – to represent the number of women who contract HIV each day.  But we’ve already had over 3200 actions, and the numbers keep growing. 

So what have we done with all these shoes?

Over the last month, we’ve been working with young artist Riitta Ikonen and YCN to create an artwork using the shoes you sent in.  The finished product, an installation which uses customised shoes to tell the stories of women affected by violence and HIV and AIDS, was unveiled on International Women’s Day at the Department for International Development.  Ivan Lewis, the Minister in charge of HIV and AIDS, spoke at the unveiling.

Mr Lewis emphasised that DFID was strongly committed to doing more on violence against women, and promised that the UK would encourage other rich countries and the international community to do more on this issue.  ActionAid will be following up both of these commitments.

The Minister also spoke with ActionAid partner Christiana Sutton Koroma, a women’s rights campaigner who recently worked with ActionAid to secure a series of important changes for women in Sierra Leone.  We are happy to hear that they met again when Mr Lewis travelled to Sierra Leone in April. 

It's not too late to put your foot down on violence against women.  Sign our petition here.

 

 

photo : ©ActionAid

24 Comments:

01
At 07:10:19 PM on Dec 2008, Than wrote:


I like this a lot - colourful spin that inspires action on a very dark subject - violence against women sucks!


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02
At 01:41:09 PM on Dec 2008, lucy wrote:


is this a project for 2009 or an ongoing 2008 one that i missed?


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03
At 03:03:54 PM on Dec 2008, Sian ActionAid wrote:


This campaign will run up until International Women's Day on the 8th March 2008. Thanks for your support.


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04
At 01:11:20 AM on Jan 2009, Leah wrote:


Sian - do you mean 8 March 2009...?


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05
At 02:35:02 AM on Jan 2009, Anella wrote:


Yes Sian meant March 2009!


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06
At 06:52:36 AM on Jan 2009, Caroline Chapman wrote:


Give women the freedom to make their own decisions and have power over their lives - power to say no and it be accepted, power to protect themselves with contraceptives. I put my foot down!


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07
At 09:16:47 AM on Jan 2009, Carolyn Ford wrote:


I agree that there should be action to prevent violence to women.


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08
At 08:06:35 PM on Jan 2009, JOYCE WILSON wrote:


such an important issue. happy to be a part of raising awareness and in tiny way bringing about positive change


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09
At 09:11:22 PM on Jan 2009, Katy Talbot-Vaux wrote:



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10
At 05:47:23 AM on Jan 2009, Claire Arnold wrote:



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11
At 04:38:46 AM on Jan 2009, laila Namdarkhan wrote:


I have campaigned for the cessation of the War against Womon and Girls all of my life. I have spent a lifetime putting my foot down, I urge others to do so as well.
Viva the Womon and Girls of the World


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12
At 06:23:32 PM on Feb 2009, Bernadette Coady-Mayall wrote:


It is so little to do - send an email, post a shoe........I am honoured to be asked to do so. Let's take the time to do this little thing for such a big thing.


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13
At 11:19:54 AM on Feb 2009, Barbara Deason wrote:


I fully support the 'Put Your Foot Down' campaign but am concerned about the waste of shoes if only one is sent rather than a pair. The 2876 shoes will no doubt be sent to landfill, whereas 2876 pairs of shoes could be recycled and used by those in need. Footware is expensive and it seems a waste to throw them away. Having said that, 'better one than none!'


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14
At 11:20:15 AM on Feb 2009, Barbara Deason wrote:


I fully support the 'Put Your Foot Down' campaign but am concerned about the waste of shoes if only one is sent rather than a pair. The 2876 shoes will no doubt be sent to landfill, whereas 2876 pairs of shoes could be recycled and used by those in need. Footware is expensive and it seems a waste to throw them away. Having said that, 'better one than none!'


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15
At 03:00:07 PM on Feb 2009, Sarah ActionAid wrote:


We have received around 200 shoes into the office, and we are hoping to reach our total of 2876 with the "virtual shoes" petition here on the website. The shoes are going to be made into an exciting art installation by a young artist from the Young Creative Network (YCN), and will be exhibited at a number of events around International Women's Day and in the Department for International Development. We hope that the art work will find a permanent home. Otherwise we hope to send them for recycling, to an organisation that does fibre reclamation, as we don't want the individual shoes to end up in landfill.


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16
At 01:10:30 PM on Feb 2009, Chris wrote:


Such a little thing to ask us to do. Lets hope we exceed the target


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17
At 04:08:51 PM on Feb 2009, Myra Gray wrote:


I'm off to the charity shop to buy a pair of shoes, maybe a girlie pair or laced old lady ones, one for me an one for my neice, the chatity shop gains and we can throw for action.


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18
At 04:26:31 PM on Feb 2009, Myra Gray wrote:


you may have thought buying a pair of shoes from the charity shop "not in the spirit" of the cause. I have been made redundant from work and only own the minimum amout of shoes necessary to my need. , This way I can still afford to take part in the action


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19
At 12:22:36 PM on Feb 2009, Fionnuala wrote:


I think this is fantastic Myra, campaigning is for everyone, not just those with bulging wardrobes and plenty of shoes to give away! And fantastic that you are getting your niece involved too!
Make sure you send your shoes in quickly though, as the artist is about to begin work on the sculpture!


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20
At 12:25:20 PM on Feb 2009, Fionnuala wrote:


ActionAid has recruited a talented young artist, Riitta Ikonen, to develop your shoes into a true work of art.
We've just delivered the first batch over to Riitta's studio in East London - you can see the pics here:
http://www.ycnonline.com/blog/show/57/Put-Your-Foot-Down


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21
At 05:02:46 AM on Feb 2009, Rani Lukita wrote:


A campaign against violence against women need to incorporate a feminist perspective on gender-based violence!


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22
At 05:23:32 PM on Feb 2009, Fionnuala wrote:


We agree with Rani Lukita! Violence against women and girls is a symptom of their unequal status in society.
That's why we are a member of Women Won't Wait, a global coalition which is campaigning for the empowerment of women and an end to gender inequality, violence and HIV and AIDS.


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23
At 09:13:08 PM on Mar 2009, lisa wrote:


LETS PUT OUR FOOT DONE TO SOMETHING THAT WE CAN PREVENT WELL DONE ACTIONAID UR DOIN AN EXCELLENT JOB :D


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24
At 11:32:48 PM on Mar 2009, Irenie wrote:


i hope we exceed the target!


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Fact file

2876 women contract HIV every day

Shoe art

Crayon shoe

 

 

 

 

The Put your foot down campaign teamed up with YCN and artist Riitta Ikonen to turn the hundreds of shoes we received into a fantastic work of art.

See a gallery of the final artwork here

 

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