Vulnerable, Voiceless Victims

     The Dallas-based Gendercide Awareness Project, a brainchild of founder Beverly Hill, started in 2010 when Ms. Hill decided that she wanted to take an active role in supporting vulnerable women around the world. After founding the Gendercide Awareness project, Hill received 501(c)(3) status in 2011, and she began to assemble a team of capable people who could help her with the project (GenDAP). Hill’s goal is to educate as many people as she can about gender-based violence and discrimination. The most staggering statistic is that over 3.7% of the world’s female population is missing (dead). That means over 117 million females, according to the UN Population Fund 2012 have been killed just because they are girls.[1]

     The Gendercide Awareness Project has two main emphases: to raise the public’s awareness of gendercide, speaking for the countless “voiceless victims” around the world, and to provide education to at-risk girls in developing countries. Issues that they confront include sex-trafficking, education for girls, gendercide, child marriage, domestic violence, and other women’s issues. In order to spread awareness, the group sets up and runs exhibits open to the public, and their first exhibit, “100+ Million Missing,” was held first in Dallas, TX, in 2017. While only 1000 people visited the exhibit, KERA aired a story about the exhibit , and the exhibit was profiled in D Magazine[2], the Dallas Morning News[3], various neighborhood publications[4], and Patron Magazine[5], all of which helped to raise awareness about the issues facing women worldwide. Hill noted that getting publicity is hard; at first it required using personal connections with journalists and using any kind of relationship advantage she could. But all the press really helped to raise awareness. She claims that the exhibit reached over 2.7 million people as a result. Since then, the newest exhibit, “Where Have All the Girls Gone,” has traveled to various other cities, such as Toronto, Mexico City, and Pueblo, Mexico. Hill and her team are currently working on taking the exhibits to other locations in Mexico as well as to India and France. The efforts to educate the public about gendercide and women’s issues, however, extends beyond the exhibit hall. Hill and her volunteers attend various Human Rights Conferences around the world. She planned an exhibit of roughly 10,000 booties at the United Nations in New York, NY in January 2019, but after working for over five years to get the exhibit up and running, she was not allowed to exhibit, owing to the nature of the exhibit. The UN organizers claimed her “baby bootie” exhibit too closely resembled those used by pro-life campaigners and Hill acknowledged the significant setback and deep frustration that resulted, but she optimistically looks forward to carrying on and getting the message out.

     The “baby bootie” project, despite its setbacks, was really a success even though the booties weren’t used at the UN as Hill had hoped. To make the booties, the GenDap organization employed over 500 women in 30 countries. GenDap and its partners paid these women fair wages, more than they had ever earned before, and the money allowed the women to pay for and feed over 45,000 balanced nutritional and protein-rich meals to their families and communities. Hill proudly claims that the booties were made by hand by vulnerable women (susceptible to exploitation or trafficking) in order to help other vulnerable women.

     The Gendercide Awareness Project does more than just raise awareness of women’s issues around the world. Their second focus centers on educating girls in developing countries. Donations to the organization help pay for primary, secondary, and college level education. As of 2019, GenDap and their partners currently sponsor over 100 girls to attend school. GenDap estimates the cost for the entire year at only $500 at the elementary level, $750 at the middle school and secondary levels, and $1000 for a year of college. The cost includes books, food, uniforms, school supplies, transportation (if necessary), and healthcare for each student. They currently support girls in Cambodia, Myanmar, India, Nepal, Uganda, and Guatemala.

     Although the Gendercide Awareness Project was founded in Dallas, TX, it does not have a brick-and-mortar location, thus keeping the overhead very low, but you can follow the Gendercide Awareness Project on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, and online at GenDap.org. According to Hill, not having a brick-and-mortar location helps the funds they raise go directly to the women who need it the most, and 98% of the funds they raise go directly to the cause. No member of the team takes a salary. In fact, every member of her team either has a full-time paying job or stays busy raising children. Furthermore, most of the operating expenses for the organization are covered personally by Hill and her team of volunteer board members. While the team certainly carries the lion share of the burden, they still rely heavily on volunteers to help with exhibits and at events. Each year they hold a fund-raising gala in Dallas where funds are raised to continue to benefit women’s issues worldwide.

 
Footnotes

[1] UNFPA, “Sex Imbalances at Birth: Current trends, consequences and policy implications” 10, August 2012, https://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/Sex%20Imbalances%20at%20Birth.%20PDF%20UNFPA%20APRO%20publication%202012.pdf

[2] Darryl Ratcliff, “Q&A: Artist Beverly Hill’s Quest to Bring Awareness to Global Gendercide,” D Magazine, February 9, 2017, https://www.dmagazine.com/arts-entertainment/2017/02/qa-artist-beverly-hills-quest-to-bring-awareness-to-global-gendercide/ (accessed December 18, 2019)

[3] Cassandra Jaramillo, “New Dallas gendercide exhibit is ‘activism in form of art’,” The Dallas Morning News, February 10, 2017, https://www.dallasnews.com/arts-entertainment/architecture/2017/02/10/new-dallas-gendercide-exhibit-is-activism-in-form-of-art/ (accessed December 18, 2019)

[4] Carly Danner, “Gendercide Exhibit Represents 120M Missing Women,” Preston Hollow People, March 29, 2017, https://www.prestonhollowpeople.com/2017/03/29/gendercide-exhibit-represents-120m-missing-women/ (accessed December 18, 2019)

[5] Shelby Gorday, “GENDERCIDE AWARENESS PROJECT HOSTS EXHIBIT AT FIG,”Patron Magazine, January 19, 2017, https://patronmagazine.com/gendercide-awareness-project-hosts-exhibit-at-fig/ (accessed December 18, 2019).

Bibliography

Beverly Hill, interview by author, Dallas, TX, 25 September 2019.

Danner, Carly, “Gendercide Exhibit Represents 120M Missing Women,” Preston Hollow People, March 29, 2017, https://www.prestonhollowpeople.com/2017/03/29/gendercide-exhibit-represents-120m-missing-women/ (accessed December 18, 2019).

 

Gorday, Shelby, “GENDERCIDE AWARENESS PROJECT HOSTS EXHIBIT AT FIG,”Patron Magazine, January 19, 2017, https://patronmagazine.com/gendercide-awareness-project-hosts-exhibit-at-fig/ (accessed December 18, 2019).

 

Jaramillo, Cassandra, “New Dallas gendercide exhibit is ‘activism in form of art’,” The Dallas Morning News, February 10, 2017, https://www.dallasnews.com/arts-entertainment/architecture/2017/02/10/new-dallas-gendercide-exhibit-is-activism-in-form-of-art/ (accessed December 18, 2019).

 

Ratcliff, Darryl, “Q&A: Artist Beverly Hill’s Quest to Bring Awareness to Global Gendercide,” D Magazine, February 9, 2017, https://www.dmagazine.com/arts-entertainment/2017/02/qa-artist-beverly-hills-quest-to-bring-awareness-to-global-gendercide/ (accessed December 18, 2019).

 

UNFPA, “Ending Gender Imbalances Must Remain International Priority, Says UNFPA’s Asia-Pacific Director,” 5 October 2011, https://www.unfpa.org/news/ending-gender-imbalances-must-remain-international-priority-says-unfpa%E2%80%99s-asia-pacific-director (accessed December 18, 2019).

 

Street Address:

3513 Purdue Ave., Dallas, TX 75225 [map]

Official Website:

https://www.gendap.org/index.html

Cite this Page:

GayMarie Vaughan, “Vulnerable, Voiceless Victims,” Human Rights Dallas Maps, accessed March 29, 2024, https://www.humanrightsdallasmaps.com/items/show/23.

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