Zonta Club of Cebu II Celebrates Women’s Month Celebration

Zonta Club of Cebu II, led by President Marilou Cañizares, celebrated Women's Month with activities highlighting some of the club’s advocates.

Some of the activities the club engaged in are described below,

• Salute to Empowered Women - At its March General Membership Meeting, Zonta Club of Cebu II honored three Women of Inspiration awardees, Rosie Abenasa, Maria Rosario Canet Chua, and Joy Lam, for their acts of extraordinary courage, innovative work, and commitment to community service. Zonta Area Director District 16, Area 3 Stella Bernabe and Zonta Club of Cebu II President Marilou Cañizares presented the plaque of recognition to the Women of Inspiration Awardees.

• End Violence Against Women and Children - At the finale of Vagina Monologues, presented at SEDA Hotel, Zonta Club of Cebu II joined the cast and crew in performing Break the Chain, choreographed by Debbie Allen, as part of the One Billion Rising movement to end violence against women. The "billion" refers to the UN statistic that one in three women will be raped or beaten in her lifetime or about one billion. Zonta Club of Cebu II is in solidarity with the global community in its campaign to end the abuse of women. Zonta Club of Cebu II joined the Vagina Monologues cast the One Billion Rising, Break the Chain performance.

• In partnership with Fight Like a Girl PH - the Zonta Club of Cebu II launched the "Raise the Vibration" – Rise for Revolution at the Ayala Malls Central Bloc. This event aimed to raise awareness through action, art, connection, imagination, and love. 180 victims of violence and human trafficking under the protection of the Bidlisiw Foundation were present at the activity, which attracted about 500 mall-goers. Highlights of this event were poetry reading of The Women’s Prayer and I God Flowers Today by club members, Zn Mary Rose Villacasin dance creative dance interpretation, and culminating the event with One Billion Rising, Break the Chain performance with enthusiastic audience participation. Yellow roses were distributed to the audience, as a sign of Zonta’s commitment to end violence against women and girls.

• Gender Equity - At the Mandaue City Hall flag-raising ceremony Zonta Club of Cebu II members also joined the entire workforce of Mandaue city hall and its women’s group in promoting equality among men and women in the community. The activity was attended by 3,000 participants including the Mayor, Vice Mayor, and the councilors of Mandaue City.

• Campaign Against Teenage Pregnancy - In partnership with the University of the Philippines Foundation and the Golden Z Club of USPF, the Club invited Dr. Hans Matthew Lua of Cebu Velez General Hospital, Department of Family and Community Medicine, to talk about adverse effects of teenage pregnancy

Dr. Lua. presented an actual case of a 15-year old pregnant girl, which jump-started the discussion into the medical and psychosocial issues of teenage pregnancy in general. A learning point from the presentation was the intervention module created by the CVGH entitled CRESCENZA, which gave much importance to Values Formation.

The program ended with a powerful explanation by Zontian Petite Garcia about the significance of ONE BILLION RISING movement. Zontians, again, performed on stage Break the Chain to the rousing applause of the students.

Zonta Club of Cebu II reaching out to the students of the University of Southern Philippines to stop teenage pregnancy and end violence against women.