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A cross-industry collective has revealed “Join the chorus”, an initiative devised to prevent domestic and sexual violence in the 54 member countries of The Commonwealth.
The pro bono effort is led by creative and social impact company GentleForces for The No More Foundation and Commonwealth Secretariat.
Efforts kick off today during the United Nations General Assembly 2021 (UNGA), with a series of animated films starring FKA twigs, Rose Byrne, Jocelyn Dumas, Mahira Khan and Thandiwe Newton.
The series of animated films explore the fable, 'The Flock'.
The fable tells the tale of a bird that gets stuck in a tree by a perpetrator of violence and can only break free with the help of her entire community of birds.
There are five versions of the animation, voiced by Byrne, Duman, Khan and Newton, alongside FKA twigs.
The campaign is part of the Commonwealth’s "Says no more" initiative and calls on leaders and bystanders to #JointheChorus and take greater action to end violence in their own communities.
As part of the initiative, it plans to provide tools to governments, non-government organisations and the public, to enable them to combat the spike in domestic and sexual violence during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The initiative came to life thanks to more than 80 volunteers from cross-industries, including brand, creative, design, animation, film and entertainment.
At the UNGA 2021 today (20 September), the Commonwealth Secretariat is calling on all 54 member governments to make domestic and sexual violence a top priority.
It has created an action guide, alongside the No More Foundation, that will provide a toolkit to each country’s leadership to guide their ongoing efforts in meeting Sustainable Development Goal 5 for gender equality, in particular its target for the elimination of violence against women and girls.
As part of the initiative, the No More Foundation is launching an action guide for "bystanders" to learn more about the issues of domestic and sexual violence and be part of the solution.
"In March 2020, news reports of the exponential rise in domestic violence due to Covid-19 were devastating but also motivating. This effort started out with a small team I brought together who wanted to make a difference and grew into our own chorus of more than 80 volunteers spanning the creative, film, production, animation and entertainment industries," said Danni Mohammed, GentleForces founder.
“We're incredibly grateful to everyone who shared their time, resources and networks, through many pandemic-related challenges, to help deliver the campaign for The No More Foundation and Commonwealth Secretariat. We hope that the ‘Join the chorus’ platform and campaign serve as a global call-to-action to help end domestic and sexual violence.''
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