Combat the Silence with Clicks

Clicks for Change
-- Molly Hays

Blogger Alexandra Kain of the Seattle Grassroots Examiner was so inspired to act. What stirred her was a movement called “Silence Is The Enemy,” started by The Intersection and ScienceBlogs.com of Discover Magazine to raise awareness of sexual violence against women and specifically the sexual violence being committed in Liberia.

Six years since Liberia’s civil war ended in 2003, sexual violence is still being used as a weapon of control for both sexes. Furthermore, sex is still viewed as a man’s right.
Bloggers are uniting and pledging to donate portions, if not all of their June revenue, to Doctors Without Borders, the organization providing care to victims in Liberia.

According to the organization’s special report, entitled, “Shattered Lives: Liberia,” a 2008 study revealed that 40% of women combatants and 32% of men combatants were victims of sexual violence during the war. Of the women combatants, 74% had symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Also, 70% of sexual violence survivors in Liberia are children.
Directly from The Intersection blog (http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/2009/06/01/silence-is-the-enemy/), “Today begins a very important initiative called Silence Is The Enemy to help a generation of young women half a world away. Why? Because they are our sisters and children–the victims of sexual abuse who don’t have the means to ask for help. We have power in our words and influence. Along with our audience, we’re able to speak for them. I’m asking all of you–bloggers, writers, teachers, and concerned citizens–to use whatever platform you have to call for an end to the rape and abuse of women and girls in Liberia and around the world.

In regions where fighting has formally ended, rape continues to be used as a weapon. As Nicholas Kristof recently wrote from West Africa, ‘it has been easier to get men to relinquish their guns than their sense of sexual entitlement.’ The war has shattered norms, training some men to think that ‘when they want sex, they need simply to overpower a girl.’ An International Rescue Committee survey suggests 12 percent of girls aged 17 and under acknowledged having been sexually abused in some way over the previous 18 months. Further, of the 275 new sexual violence cases treated Jan-April by Doctors Without Borders, 28 percent involve children aged 4 or younger, and 33 percent involve children aged 5 through 12. That’s 61% age 12 or under. We read about their plight and see the figures, but it’s so easy to feel helpless to act in isolation. But these are not statistics, they are girls. Together we can do more. Mass rape persists because of inertia so let’s create momentum.”

Oh, the internet, proving wonderful channels to direct social change. Do your part and get the click counts up. Each website click generates a penny, and every penny counts.
Below is a list of blogs contributing their revenues.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/
http://scienceblogs.com/isisthescientist/
http://scienceblogs.com/aetiology/
http://scienceblogs.com/bioephemera/
http://scienceblogs.com/neurotopia/
http://scienceblogs.com/authority/
http://scienceblogs.com/drugmonkey/
http://scienceblogs.com/ethicsandscience/
http://www.examiner.com/x-6875-Seattle-Grassroots-Examinerhttp://moderateleft.com/
http://www.scientificblogging.com/rugbyologist/silence_enemy
http://scienceblogs.com/sciencewoman/

Combat silence with clicks, let that mouse roar.