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BY MENGHAN JIN

In print | Published March 4, 2010

In light of the 99th anniversary of International Women’s Day on March 8, 2010, the borough of Swarthmore will host its own “Join me on the Bridge” event this week to honor women who have lived through times of war. The event, which is scheduled to take place this Sunday from 1 to 3 p.m. on the bridge in Swarthmore near the train station from, is organized by Women for Women International, a humanitarian organization dedicated to advocating for women’s rights.

“The event is called a bridge event and it’s supposed to help create bridges between women,” said Jill Whitcraft, a Swarthmore resident who initiated local efforts to support Women for Women International. “The women in Rwanda and Congo are going to stand on a bridge, on an actual bridge between their two countries, together … and show that women can build bridges to peace and development.”

Women for Women International aims to rebuild the lives and societies of women survivors of war by providing them with financial and emotional support. It is the first women’s organization to win the 2006 Conrad Hilton Humanitarian Award, the largest humanitarian award in the world with a monetary prize of $1.5 million.

According to the organization’s website, it was co-founded in 1993 by Zainab Salbi, an Iraqi American survivor of war who was named Time magazine’s “Innovator of the Month” in March 2005. She is currently the CEO of Women for Women International.

“It’s just a great organization that brings women around the world together, and it certainly wants to highlight what’s happening … anywhere in the world where there’s war,” Whitcraft said.

Women for Women International launched the global “Join me on the Bridge” campaign in order to honor the resilience of those women who have survived the horrors of war and civil conflict.

“Women for Women International’s campaign — ‘Join me on the Bridge’ — unites women all over the world in showing that women can build the bridges of peace and development for the future. By joining this campaign you will be standing alongside women in the Congo, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, Sudan and Nigeria in saying no to war and yes to peace and hope,” advertised the campaign brief.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo alone, war has been raging for decades, with death tolls already surpassing five million citizens. But women in this war-torn country are calling for amity. They will be gathering with thousands of women from Rwanda on March 8 to symbolize their desire for peace, said Satya Helms, fellow coordinator of Swarthmore’s bridge event.

This event is not unique to the DRC. Gatherings are scheduled to occur in many countries around the world, from Panama to India to the Bahamas, and across the United States this weekend.

“I think it’s amazing that literally in dozens of cities all over the world, there will be women gathered on bridges all under the same movement — ending violence around the world and specifically saying no to violence in war-torn countries and violence towards women,” Helms said.

It was Whitcraft who first came across Women for Women International online and discovered the global “Join me on the Bridge” campaign. “Swarthmore is such a peaceful, loving kind of town and we would be a good location for this,” she said.

There will be a march in Philadelphia at the Girard Ave. Bridge at 1 p.m. this Sunday. “But I thought Swarthmore deserved its own,” Whitcraft said.

Seeking help from The Creative Living Room, a program in Swarthmore that promotes the expression of ideas through different art forms, Whitcraft came across Satya Helms, a hip hop dance instructor at The Creative Living Room. Helms has been very active in community service since college.

“When she told me about it, it sounded like an awesome idea and something that I felt like ‘How could I not be a part of it?’” Helms said.

With Helms by her side, Whitcraft set out to organize and publicize the event around the Ville over the course of a little more than a month.

The purpose of the bridge event in Swarthmore is not to raise money, but to spread local awareness for women internationally “We just want to be out there where people can see us,” Whitcraft said.

The event will open with a speech by Whitcraft, and hopefully will be followed by speeches from other community leaders or Swarthmore students and professors. The line-up of speakers has yet to be confirmed.

Everyone in attendance will then stand on the bridge in solidarity for about an hour and have the opportunity to decorate a banner with their name or a short quotation about peace, justice or development.

Free coffee will also be offered by Hobbs Coffee for all participants.

“I don’t know how many people are going to show up. I think it’s the kind of thing where people hear about it and if they’re free or if it’s good weather, they’ll come down and if it’s not, maybe they’ll stay where they are,” Whitcraft said. “If anybody can come down and just show solidarity, just show up and be a part of it, that would be great.”

If the “Join me on the Bridge” event is successful on Sunday, Whitcraft and Nelms both hope to make it an annual event in Swarthmore.

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