From and to: how youth in Asia-Pacific face #VAW issue

Abstract

For many years, Pacific Island countries titled as the region with the highest data prevalence of violence against women (VAW). The practice of dominance and gender discrimination oftentimes become the issues with alarming rate, especially within the environment of families. Children and teenagers have tremendous possibility to become witnesses, or even future victim. To prevent this, many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Pacific Island countries broaden their target group to reach out the youth. This is what happened at Solomon Islands and Tonga, where the NGOs tried to reach out the youth in understanding VAW and spread the awareness of how important it is to put our action in preventing VAW. Supported by funding from UN Women, they use social media and volunteerism in education, to educate the youth regarding the implications of VAW. Seen from neighboring concept, the same effort also reflected at the Southeast Asia. Benefitted from international organization (IGO) funding as well, the NGOs in Viet Nam and Cambodia uses social media and education as their media in approaching the millennials. The link between youth with social media and education played a vital role in this movement; as the young generation is the future of gender equality, and social media is the most rampant information tools these days. This paper will analyze the correlation of creative collaborations between NGO and IGO in utilizing the social media and grass-root education to engage with the youth, in order to eliminate VAW in Asia-Pacific as the form of preserving feminism and renewing the idea to the neighboring region.