From: Celia Schutte
Columbus
In Bartholomew County, over one in three women and more than one in four men experience rape, physical violence and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime. Shocking? These numbers do not reflect the impact of the pandemic, and it would be even higher if they include the full continuum of violence that affect women and girls including sexual harassment, violence in digital contexts, harmful practices and sexual exploitation.
My senior project is a communications campaign to highlight the United Nations’ 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. It is an annual international campaign that kicks off on November 25, 2021, which is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and runs until December 10, 2021, which is Human Rights Day. This year in Columbus, Mayor Lienhoop issued a proclamation urging all citizens to recognize this observance.
I urge Bartholomew County residents to talk about violence against women, listen to survivors of violence and support our local shelter, Turning Point. Turning Point works to eliminate violence through teaching in the public schools to help prevent violence, and they protect and support survivors.
This is an issue that affects everybody, and it takes everybody to solve it. I encourage all of you to speak up when you see or hear intimidation or violence. I ask you to believe survivors when they share their stories. I ask you to support programming to prevent violence before it happens.
