Sexual Assault Situation: Hopeless or Hopeful?

Glancing around the kids’ project I helped with last year in a comunidade in Brazil, I couldn’t help but feel like it was half empty. Despite the new faces, I found myself looking around every five minutes, wondering if they’d arrived. I beckoned one of the girls over, asking where her two peers were.

“They don’t come anymore, Auntie, they’ve both got boyfriends.”

My heart sank as I realised the implication; in Brazil the macho culture means that girls, as young as 12 in this case, will probably be dating much older men, often early twenties, and that relationship will almost always be a sexual one.

When hearing realities like that it can be easy to think that here, in the UK, relationships, sexual exploitation and assault are not an issue. However, the bleak reality is there are roughly 11 rapes per hour (Rape Crisis) and universities in particular are a hotbed (no pun intended) for sexual assault, with 68% of students having been the victim of some form of sexual assault or harassment on a university campus (NUS ‘Hidden Marks’ report).

With statistics like these this issue can seem desperate; sadly the situation doesn’t seem to be changing. But as Christians, we can play a role in fighting this. The bible is full of stories of God showing up in seemingly hopeless situations, and it is consistently telling us to be a voice for the voiceless:

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.”

Proverbs 31:8-9 (NIV)

Responding to this call, this year, Just Love is launching a campaign called Unashamed, in partnership with a charity called Restored Relationships. This campaign aims to encourage Christian students to confront violence and abuse against women. Look out for more details on this in October, but for you keen beans here are a few links with more information.

http://firstmanstanding.blancdemo.com/stories/

http://www.restoredrelationships.org/

http://everydaysexism.com/