The Zonta Club of Royal Gorge, the Royal Gorge Bridge and local women’s rights advocate Sarai Trujillo will be holding an event to raise awareness about violence against women and girls in Canon City Feb. 14 at 12:30 p.m.

The event, known as One Billion Rising, will be celebrating its third year of empowering women and working to decrease violence against them.

The event began in 2012 when a handful of advocates for women’s rights decided to join together. The name One Billion Rising was chosen in respect for the high volume of women and girls all over the world who have been victims of violence.

According UN Women, “One in three women have experienced physical or sexual violence. One hundred twenty million girls have been forced into intercourse or other sexual acts at some point in their lives and 133 million women and girls have undergone female genital mutilation.”

One Billion Rising hosted its first event Feb. 14, 2012.

Since then, the event has attracted several international women’s advocacy groups to participate.

In February 2013, the campaign gained world recognition. It wasn’t long before 200 countries joined in the movement and began to host One Billion Rising events of their own. Supporters all over the world met to demonstrate and show their support for the event.

At this year’s event, supporters will join together to sing and dance to the song “Break the Chain.”

“Break the Chain,” is a gospel style song written by Tena Clark and Tim Heintz.

During the first One Billion Rising event in New York, local activists and artists collaborated to perform the song, and choreograph a dance to go along with it. Since then, the song “Break the Chain” has become the anthem for the One Billion Rising movement across the globe. 

One Billion Rising will also be hosting smaller events throughout Colorado during the month of February.