Interview with Regina Yau, Founder and President
The Pixel Project
International

Connect with Regina on GSO!

GSO: How did The Pixel Project get started?
The Pixel Project: I started The Pixel Project in response to a cry for help from Malaysia’s Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO). Their need emerged when the global financial crisis started in late 2008 and donors and funders rescinded, froze or reduced financial pledges.

I hatched the idea in early January 2009 in the shower (yes – the shower! Archimedes was really on to something!), resulting in me rushing out to call WAO to pitch the idea while I was still dripping wet!

My motivation for getting involved with the cause is personal though. There is a history of domestic violence against the women in my mother’s family, starting with my grandmother who was a battered wife. Kickstarting The Pixel Project was a way for me to help women and girls avoid any form of violence against women (VAW).

GSO: What are the key issues you focus on in your work?
The Pixel Project: We focus on stopping violence against women. No woman or girl should have go through any form of gender-based violence, be it domestic violence, rape, female genital mutilation, emotional abuse, sexual assault, forced marriage, honour killing, female infanticide or sex trafficking. Ever.

GSO: What projects are the Pixel Project currently working on?
The Pixel Project: Our first project is to turbo-charge global awareness about VAW using social media while raising US$1 million for Malaysia’s Women’s Aid Organisation and the US’s National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Our unique fundraiser will ask a global audience to collectively unveil a million-pixel mystery collage of 4 to 6 Celebrity Male Role Models by buying pixels at US$1 each.

The philosophy behind choosing positive male role models from different walks of life is to emphasize that men have a major role to play in breaking the cycle of violence against women. To date, our distinguished mystery Celebrity Male Role Model line-up includes a prominent Nobel Prize Winner and a Pulitzer Prize winner.

We also run a number of innovative interactive online awareness-raising programs, including::

• Twitter Tag Team – Bringing relevant news and helpline information on VAW to a global audience almost around the clock.
• Twitter Ambassador programme – A micro-volunteering program engaging Twitter users to spread awareness about VAW through regular re-tweets./li>
• Facebook page –Providing up-to-date news, ideas to stop VAW and a discussion forum for fans to talk about VAW.
• “Wall of Support” programme -A growing chorus of people from around the world and all walks of life speaking up to end VAW in person, on video.

GSO: What challenges has the organization faced?
The Pixel Project: The biggest challenge we face is the one that we have taken on – getting VAW into the mainstream so people will talk about it and take action to stop it when they see it.

One in three women worldwide experiences some form of gender-based violence. Yet many people remain silent witnesses. Worse still is the common refrain that the woman in question “deserves it” or that “it’s just our culture”. Given this toxic mix of silence, hostility, denial and bias in the communities and cultures we live in, few will discuss it – much less intervene to stop it.

The Pixel Project’s challenge is to break the silence, change mindsets and inspire action. We aim to accomplish this through social media, a forward-looking blame-free approach, and bringing men and women together to stop VAW.

Our second biggest challenge is getting high profile endorsements and the funds that we need to do our work. Few people or companies want to be associated with the cause [to end violence against women]. This is compounded by the fact that we are a new organization. Nevertheless, we are confident that our efforts will prevail in the long run. We are here to stay!

GSO: How do you use social networking and new media in your own activism?
The Pixel Project: Social networking and new media are central to our activism. We are a global 501(c)(3) nonprofit organisation that works to bring fund- and awareness-raising for ending VAW into the 21st century by delivering innovative, powerful viral campaigns across online and virtual channels.

All our social and new media campaigns are designed to leverage the greatest strength of these technologies: direct engagement and interaction with the global public. We have done voting campaigns, petition signings, daily Helpline retweet sessions on Twitter – all geared to getting the global community engaged, even if it is just a single keystroke.

As part of our commitment to social networking, new media and internet technologies, we have chosen to be virtual. Our website is our home. With our supporters spread out over four continents and the fact that we are a volunteer-staffed organization, being virtual is essential to making it easy for people worldwide to volunteer with us.

GSO: Do you have any tips or advice for GSO members who are involved with, or would like to become involved in, the work you do?
The Pixel Project: VAW is one of the toughest causes out there because it deals with a human rights issue that is still either taboo or a non-issue for many people and communities. And because it is split along gender lines, it is also a sensitive and politically-charged issue.

My advice to GSO members involved in the work we do is to keep moving forward, to keep pushing for change and to always remember that it is not just a women’s issue – it is everybody’s issue. Everybody has a stake in ending VAW – men and women alike.

GSO: How can GSO members support The Pixel Project?
The Pixel Project: GSO members can support us in so many ways. They can volunteer with us, help us re-tweet helpline numbers, sign our online petitions and so on. For more information, check out our website’s Community Buzz and Getting Involved pages or email us at info@thepixelproject.net.

GSO: What’s one thing you’d like every woman (or man) to know about ending violence against women worldwide?
The Pixel Project: The Pixel Project would like men and women alike to know that it is only by working together that we will be able to end violence against women worldwide. It doesn’t matter how small or how major an action is – every action to prevent or stop violence against women and girls is yet another step towards ending it.

You could be: a teacher taking it upon yourself to teach the boys in your class to respect women and girls; a passerby stepping in to stop a rape; or the neighbor calling the police when you hear domestic violence happening next door.

Just do it – take action. It all adds up. Together, we can change things.

GSO: Why do you feel it’s important to engage men in VAW efforts?
The Pixel Project: We have always included men in our efforts, be it as volunteers, on Facebook, on Twitter or on our blog. Right from the get-go, we included a section on our website specifically aimed at men called “The Men’s Room” which provides boys and men with information about how they can take action to stop VAW.

It’s important to engage men in efforts to end VAW because we can’t ignore half of humanity even if many of them perpetuate VAW. There are a lot of good men out there who have remained silent due to peer or cultural pressures. Many of these men also mistakenly believe that VAW is a women’s issue. We are here to change these perceptions and to help them stand up to the pressure they face to do the right thing.

We have also partnered with men’s organizations working to end violence against women, like The White Ribbon Campaign, because we believe that we are stronger working together.

Even our upcoming flagship Pixel Reveal fundraiser is part of this effort as we try to get globally known and positive Celebrity Male Role Models to step up to help us really get out our message that “It’s time to stop violence against women. Together.”

GSO: When are you going to reveal your Celebrity Male Role Models?
The Pixel Project: The Celebrity Male Role Models will be revealed once the Pixel Reveal Fundraiser begins and the global audience “buys” enough pixels to unveil them.

The Pixel Reveal fundraiser is currently expected to launch in Fall 2010 and we are in the midst of completing this year’s line-up. We currently have a Nobel Laureate and a Pulitzer Prize winner and are working to get two more suitable globally known celebrity men on board.

It has been tough to convince many of these worthy men to come on board. As I mentioned before, we have the double challenge of working on a controversial cause and being one of the newest VAW organizations around. However, we have faith that we will get it done.

GSO: What’s next for The Pixel Project?
The Pixel Project: After we wrap up this year’s Pixel Reveal fundraiser, we will continue with our key social media programs such as our Twitter Tag Team, Twitter Ambassadors and Wall of Support while devising more online micro-fundraising strategies to raise funds for VAW organizations.

We will also continue to work with all of our partners to create innovative solutions designed to end VAW using social media, virtual learning tools and mobile and new technologies. By taking the cause to the grassroots through their computers and phones, we hope to accelerate the social change that is so badly needed to end VAW once and for all.

It really is time to stop violence against women. Together.

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Regina Yau is the Founder and President of The Pixel Project, an organization committed to ending VAW. Prior to The Pixel Project, she founded and organised the Time-and-Fund raising Charity Bachelor Auction (currently on hiatus) which raised an average of RM63,000 nett per year for Breast Cancer, 6-month publicity runs and over 200 hours of community service. Regina was nominated in the Education and Public Service category of The Malaysian Women’s Weekly’s “Great Women of Our Time” Awards 2008 for her innovative awareness-raising work for breast cancer through the auction.

Regina is a Rhodes Scholar with a long-standing commitment to gender issues and two post-graduate degrees from Oxford – an M.St in Women’s Studies and an M.St in Oriental Studies. She also has a First-Class BA (Hons) in English from Royal Holloway University of London.