Alexandra Tashman: Students should more actively support victims of gender-based violence

V-Day is an annual event held on Valentine’s Day, put on by volunteers worldwide, that is meant to start discussions about violence against women.

This international movement seeks to bring attention to the problem of gender-based violence through educational courses, personal testimonies and artistic statements.

Gender-based violence – which includes sexual assault, rape, abuse and incest – will affect approximately one billion women over the course of their lifetimes. As a woman, that statistic makes me angry. But more than anything, it makes me scared.

V-Day is a two-week event at UCLA, but sexual assaults happen every day. As a socially active and engaged population of students, Bruins can do more to support survivors of gender-based violence in the surrounding Los Angeles community.

UCLA students are known for our service-based contributions to the local community, and supporting victims throughout Los Angeles is another important way in which we can and must help.

Gender-based violence and reproductive rights have been tied together in the “war on women,” a term that has gained traction over the last few years, largely in response to misinformed statements about rape and sexual assault made by a variety of government officials.

But more than that, reproductive rights have been under legislative attack, with the number of abortion restrictions passed and enacted in 2011 more than double that of 2010, and four times the number of 1985.

Recent media coverage of a New Delhi woman who died after being violently gang-raped and a Steubenville, Ohio girl who was raped and urinated on by classmates while they tweeted about it, have once again brought rape and sexual assault – and who is actually to blame for them – into the national spotlight.

As a powerhouse of nearly 30,000 undergraduate students, we can effect change in the greater Los Angeles area. For the rest of February, UCLA students should inundate women’s shelters with more volunteers than they can handle and make UCLA into the most powerful supporter of women’s rights in the nation.

But it is important to recognize that gender-based violence happens right here, too.

In the last two months, there have been instances of both sexual assault and sexual battery near campus.

On-campus groups, including the office of USAC General Representative 2 and the Office of Residential Life, sponsored V-Day events, which began Tuesday and will last through the end of next week.

Numerous organizations would benefit from increased support from the UCLA community. Some options are volunteering at women’s shelters around Los Angeles, including the Good Shepherd Shelter, the special domestic violence program at the Glendale YWCA or the National Council of Jewish Women Shelter.

Students can also volunteer their time with the Rape Abuse and Incest National Network’s online hotline.

On campus, students can become involved with the USAC-sponsored group CARE Speak Out and Support, which puts on events to teach student volunteers about how to be active bystanders as well as how to support and help peers who have been assaulted.

Survivors of gender-based violence often feel silenced and ashamed. The more Bruins support survivors and bring attention to their cause, the more power we have to redefine our culture’s understanding of these issues and to alleviate some of their pain.

Email Tashman at atashman@media.ucla.edu or tweet her @alexandra_tash. Send general comments to opinion@media.ucla.edu or tweet us @DBOpinion.