$16K raised for organizations working to end violence against women, girls

The Virginia Tech V-Day Initiative in association with the Women's Center and the Department of Theatre Arts hosted three sold-out, benefit productions of Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues, directed by Susanna Rinehart, raising more than $16,000 and awareness toward ending violence against women and girls.

V-Day is a global movement to stop violence against women and girls including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation, and sexual slavery. Through V-Day campaigns, volunteers and college students produce performances of The Vagina Monologues that benefit anti-violence groups within their own communities.

The Vagina Monologues is based on Eve Ensler's interviews with more than 200 women. Called funny, poignant, intelligent, and courageous, The Vagina Monologues dives into the mystery, humor, pain, power, wisdom, outrage, and excitement buried in women's experiences.

The production beneficiaries are the Women's Resource Center of the New River Valley, which will use the donated funds to support direct assistance needs of women and children who come to the them for shelter and support services; IWiN (International Women in Need), a non-profit student organization at Virginia Tech whose mission is to promote the awareness of international women's issues; and V-Day's 2005 spotlight, Women of Iraq, Under Siege, where incidents of rape and abduction by organized gangs have increased women's fear of sexual violence.