JAMAICA: OBR Jamaica was successful in being able to sensitize a primarily homophobic and sexist community with GBV terminology. They provided land stewardship through the lens of proclaiming the origins of traditional sustainability( ROOTS) – prioritizing LGBTQI + women-led indigenous practices and shifting the landscape of culture, spirituality and music.
SOUTH AFRICA: The theme allowed them to work closely with indigenous women and allowed them to bring in plant medicine as part of the rising. The community did not expect this but welcomed it.
INDIA: OBR India organized an innovative large-scale campaign as part of OBR called“ Be My Guest” – going from home to home, taking the message of love, solidarity, compassion and care – reaching out to the unreached and excluded. This was also a response against hate politics. They covered nearly 1,000 households and the response was heartwarming – deep welcome and love. Stories were shared about their lives’ struggles which they had never shared with anyone. Everyone came back full of compassion and a deeper sense of connection and friendship as people sat, ate and drank together with families – breaking down barriers of caste, class, religion, disability and binary genders.
PHILIPPINES: The Supreme Court of the Philippines held several risings with supreme court judges taking part. The Supreme Court publicly issued an official declaration of commitment to support all the OBR principles as part of their mandate to protect all women and girls and legally uphold their full rights.
Over 80 local government units held OBR events throughout the country – with many cities declaring February 14 as OBR Day of Observance – which means it is officially tied to their mandates to prioritize ending all forms of violence against women and girls – as well as mandating them to do risings each year.
ZAMBIA: As a direct impact of OBR, it was agreed with the schools who participated that a legal desk be held so that an up-close relationship is created between the OBR team and students who have issues. The students have started reporting cases.