Only a couple of weeks have gone by since the virtual campaign for the 2nd of October, #nonviolenceday, started and it’s already spreading around the planet. The campaign was created with the aim of increasing awareness of nonviolent ways to respond to the conflicts and violence we live in.
More than 6000 people are already following the campaign on Facebook. Hundreds of photos and graphics have been produced in different languages are being uploaded with the hashtags.
A video called “So that we all come together” with some of these images is in the process of being edited.
The team gathering information about the campaign in Spanish, based in Buenos Aires is receiving and publishing content on a daily basis. According to the organisers, “The inspiration is contagious and the initial proposals have been surpassed and improved on by all those joining in. Now people are uploading their photo, tagging five friends and inviting them to load their own photo and share it with the hashtags #diadelanoviolencia and #nonviolenceday.
Of the people on Facebook, 80% of our followers are women with the majority between 25 and 55 years old. In terms of countries the campaign is most popular in Venezuela followed by Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Ecuador.
Individual photos, group shots, graffiti, drawings, murals, pictures of dogs and even a Swedish guinea pig have been sent in. The campaign now has its first orthodontist. There are entire schools working on the subject of nonviolence with workshops for pupils. Several vegetarian and vegan collectives are also sharing their images defending animals from violence.
In Argentina the National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism has taken the campaign as their own and also the Actors Association of Argentina. In Ecuador the community “Nonviolent Ecuador” is taking part by publicising activities and events that will take place during “nonviolent October”. Organisations such as the Centre of Humanist Studies of Buenos Aires and World without Wars in Córdoba (Argentina) and Murcia (Spain) are actively involved in the campaign. In Berlin people are doing street activities in front of a big poster of Gandhi inviting passers-by to upload a selfie to social networks. In the Czech Republic they are holding a “Month for Peace and Nonviolence” in which the local branch of World without Wars is focussing on the subject of nuclear disarmament (with flashmobs) and the Community for Human Development is taking nonviolence to schools, all of which will culminate on the 2nd of October with a huge nonviolence sign in Prague. These are just a few examples of what is happening.
Several artists and people from the sphere of culture in different countries are taking photos and uploading them to social networks with the aim to inspire others to spread the campaign and help raise awareness. All of them are supporting the concept that “A world without Violence is Possible”.
