How the Art Exhibit Started

How the Art Exhibit Started

This is a Cambodian woman cutting out baby bootie patterns. She is part of a women’s sewing cooperative formed to help vulnerable women and girls rescued from the sex trade.

In 2012 the Gendercide Awareness Project, or Gendap, commissioned this cooperative and 29 others from around the world to send handcrafted baby booties for an art installation and exhibit. Each pair represents 10,000 “missing” (dead)women and girls.

United Nations demographers report that currently 143 millionwomen and girls are demographically “missing.” This elimination of women, called gendercide or female genocide,results from severe discrimination – the selective abortion of female fetuses, lethal neglect of unwanted girls, preventablematernal death, and the inability of older women to access food, shelter, and medical care as successfully as older men.

We use this powerful art exhibit to raise awareness of gendercide.  We also take practical action to eradicate the atrocity by providing K-12  education (plus university when possible!) to at-risk girls in low-income countries.