Every 2 minutes in the United States, someone is raped or sexually assaulted.
George Mason’s partnership with Fear 2 Freedom aims to shed some much-needed light on the topic and lend a voice to survivors of assault.
The second annual Fear 2 Freedom event for the university took place on Tuesday, September 22nd in Dewberry Hall. The event began with moving testimonies from the nonprofit’s founder, Rosemary Trible, and Fairfax County judge, Thomas Mann, both of whom have been personally affected by sexual violence.
“The impact is multifaceted, and groundbreaking,” said Geoffrey Payne, Mason student and Fear 2 Freedom volunteer, “Their speeches pushed us to consider that we should not scare people with notions of “don’t be a victim”, and that instead we should make eradicating sexual assault a group effort of community awareness, one that shatters the silence and the taboo.”
The event served to empower people of all age groups, genders, identities and personal experiences. Many survivors of sexual violence were in the audience and were empowered in a special way. Payne said, “For those of us who have been sexually assaulted, their speeches validated our humanity as survivors; they praised social advocacy, but also encouraged helping victims in their transition from victim to survivor and restoring the capacity to live fully as human beings.”
Hundreds of students and members of the Mason community gathered to assemble hundreds of after-care kits for survivors of sexual violence. This year, fifty kits were kept with the Wellness, Alcohol and Violence Education and Services (WAVES) office, to be distributed to survivors on Mason’s campus.
“One of the greatest appeals of this particular event,” Payne said, “was the opportunity for direct action that was provided in the kits that were given to the WAVES office and to the INOVA hospital. A public good like this one mobilizes people to start their stand against sexual assault, and helps them feel more a part of the cause.”
Partnering with Trible’s nonprofit to host Fear 2 Freedom events at Mason has been but one of many strides the university has taken in the past few years to catalyze a discussion of sexual violence prevention and awareness on campus.
The discussion on Mason’s campus is part of a nationwide and statewide discussion. In response to the White House’s “It’s On Us” public awareness campaign to help prevent campus sexual assault, Mason created a Sexual Assault and Interpersonal Violence task force. Mason Student Government also has a Patriots in Action subcommittee, which focuses on initiatives for prevention, awareness and education about sexual assault and interpersonal violence on campus.
In addition, resources such as WAVES, Student Health Services, and Counseling and Psychological Services work to prevent and treat any physical or emotional trauma resulting from sexual violence.
Even with all of these efforts to prevent sexual violence and bring awareness to this issue causing so much pain and suffering on college campuses, it is safe to say that we still have an awfully long way to go.
“In the last several years, the numbers of sexual assaults have decreased,” student Aishwarya Iyer said, “However, we have a long way to go before I would say we have any substantial positive changes. Seeing numbers like that, I’m reluctant to say that we’ve achieved substantial success, because even one is too many. Our work isn’t done here, but on a positive note, we as a community have started a powerful dialogue and have made sexual assault prevention a priority in a lot of people’s minds.”
Photo Credit: George Mason University, Geoffrey Payne