Awareness

Leaving work the other afternoon, I saw a sign that advertized April as Sexual Assault Awareness Month.  Twenty feet further along, another sign advertized April as Child Abuse Prevention Month.  My first thought, a cynical one, was we’re going to need more months in the year if people assign months to things of which we should be aware. I guess the signs worked, I looked up some data on the subject.

The National Sexual Violence Resource Center says on its website that the goal of Sexual Assault Awareness Month is to raise public awareness about sexual violence and to educate communities and individuals on how to prevent sexual violence. That is an admirable goal and I hope they achieve that goal. Statistics concerning sexual assault and rape are listed on the Rape Abuse and Incest National Network website (http://www.rainn.org/statistics).  According to the website, someone in the US is sexually assaulted every two minutes resulting in an average of over 207,000 victims per year.  More disturbingly, 97% of rapist will never spend a day in jail. If that isn’t bad enough, 44% of victims are under the age of 18.

Child Abuse Prevention Month, its purpose is self-evident.  I pray that we can eliminate child abuse.  It is a horrible thing and if proclaiming April as Child Abuse Prevention Month helps, I’m all for it.  The National Children’s Alliance Statistical Fact Sheet (http://www.nationalchildrensalliance.org/file.php/3851/NCA-NationalStatSheet-2011TotalStatistics.pdf) reports that in 2010, an estimated 1,560 children died from abuse and neglect in the United States. Of those deaths due to abuse and neglect, 80% were caused by one or more of the victim’s parents.

My second thought, after raising awareness of these issues for one month, do we forget about them over the other 11 months?  Yes, it’s cynical, but these are important issues that should be on people’s mind year round, not limited to one month a year.  Maybe one month is enough to raise the awareness out of the background noise for the rest of the year. I sure hope so.

My challenge to you is twofold; don’t let this month go by without increasing your awareness about one or both of these issues (this is the thinking part), and don’t let these issues fade into the background the other 11 months.  Volunteer at a rape crisis center, a child advocacy center, be a foster parent, donate money or time (or both), but do something (this is the active part).