Funny Women Stand Up takes place on 8th March, International Women’s Day and grew out of a collaboration between founder, Lynne Parker, and former government advisor and stand-up comic, Ayesha Hazarika. The show is Funny Women’s key charity awareness and fund raising event and continues to bring attention to issues around violence against women.

in 2010 Funny Women Stand Up takes place on Monday 8th March at the Leicester Square Theatre and we're also producing a series of other shows, workshops and interactive events to bring women writers and performers together as part of the women's festival, See You Next Tuesday 6th - 20th March at the New Players Theatre - details to be announced in January. All proceeds will go to V-Day.

The Funny Women Awards Final is our other key charity event.  The 2009 Final was held in support of V-Day, a global movement to stop violence against women and girls, with which we have had a long and rewarding relationship.

V-Day is a catalyst that promotes creative events to increase awareness, raise money and revitalise the spirit of existing anti-violence organisations. V-Day in the UK campaigns to prevent violence against women and girls, including rape, domestic violence, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM), so-called ‘honour killings’ and sexual slavery.

Each year community activists and students join the V-Day movement to produce annual benefit performances of The Vagina Monologues and other artistic works to raise awareness and funds for anti-violence groups within their own communities.  These benefit performances also ‘spotlight’ a global aspect of violence against women. 

In 2010 V-Day’s spotlight is on the appalling sexual violence being used as a weapon in an economic war against women and girls of all ages across Eastern Congo (hundreds of thousands have been brutalised).  V-Day believes that the story of the Congo needs to be told to the rest of the world.  As thousands of citizens around the world are awakening to the catastrophe that is taking place in the Congo – one that has left 6 million dead – we here in the UK must not be silent on this issue.

We are proud to be helping the V-Day committee with a high profile schedule of activities over the next year. Women and men in the UK are being informed of the horrors that are facing our Congolese sisters right now, in order to speak with one voice - "No more rape in the DRC".  Shockingly a woman or girl is being raped every half an hour in the DRC. See www.vdayuk.org for more details about joining the campaign.