GABNet Chair Honored by V-Day Movement

March 28, 2008, SAN FRANCISCO, CA: GABRIELA Network (GABNet) National Chair, Dr. Annalisa Enrile was honored by the Fiipino Women’s Network and Eve Ensler’s VDAY foundation as a “Vagina Warrior” for her work in stopping violence against women. Dr. Enrile is one of six honorees of the distinguished award.

“Vagina Warriors” are women and allies identified because of their work around violence and are so named after the V-Day Movement. V-Day is a global movement to stop violence through increasing awareness, fundraising, and revitalizing the spirit of anti-violence organizations. “Violence” against women and girls include rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM) and sexual slavery. The V-Day Movement was launched from the successful benefit performances of Ensler’s “Vagina Monologues.” This year, over 3700 performances of the play will occur. Hundreds of thousands of dollars will be raised. Ensler states, “This year V-Day celebrates Vagina Warriors around the world, and by doing so we acknowledge these women and men and their work. Although Vagina Warriors are highly original, they posses some general defining characteristics: they are fierce, obsessed, can’t be stopped, driven…they are citizens of the world, they cherish humanity over nationhood. They are often willing to face anything for the safety and freedom of others. They are community makers.”

Dr. Enrile has worked with GABNet since 1994. In 1996, as a Fulbright Fellow she worked in the Philippines researching grassroots alternatives to domestic violence. Her academic work continued with research on the mental health of adolescents of color and suicide. Currently, she is a professor at the USC School of Social Work where she teaches in the areas of theory, feminist paradigm, community, and social action. In her acceptance speech of the award, Dr. Enrile stated, “I accept this award for all of those women who are fighting and struggling and keep going. I accept this award for organizations like GABNet who realize that it is not enough to save one woman, we need to address the systems that cause violence and work to end violence altogether.”

GABNet is a US-Philippine women’s mass solidarity organization. Since it’s inception in 1989, GABNet is concerned with the economic, political, and social hardships that have contrived to push a million Filipino migrants out of the Philippines, 65% of whom are women who find employment in the world’s dirtiest, demanding, and dangerous sectors. GABNet’s current work is focused on spanning boundaries and borders to build global sisterhoods for women’s liberation. ###

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