East Hampton, U.S.A. — The Retreat, a non-profit organization serving victims of domestic violence for the past 25 years, is pleased to announce their 4th Annual Juried Art Show. In the previous three years of the Juried Art Show the Retreat has garnished both national and international attention by reaching artists who have submitted works for consideration as far as South Africa, San Paolo, Brazil, the Midwest, and the entire Eastern seaboard. The message is clear: artists from diverse backgrounds and cultures are showing they care and are coming together to try to end domestic violence.

The show benefits the Retreat’s Domestic Violence Services and is open to all artists with work in Photography, Painting, 2D, 3D, and Sculpture (no video art). The work cannot be larger than 24″ x 36″.

The deadline to enter is August 1, 2012 . Entry fee is $50 per entry, limit 3 entries (1 entry is $50, 2 is$100, and 3 is $150). Actual work will not be judged but have to be submitted in JPEG form. For complete rules and entry form, visit http://www.hamptonsjuriedartshow.com/.

This is a chance to have artwork judged by distinguished members of the art world. The jurors of this competition are:

• Kathryn Markel – Owner of art gallery Kathryn Markel Fine Arts with locations in Bridgehamptonand New York City
• Christina Mossaides Strassfield – Museum Director/ Chief Curator of Guild Hall Museum in East Hampton, NY

The top 25 entries, as decided by the jurors, will be in a group show at Richard J. Demato Fine Arts Gallery in Sag Harbor, New York, opening October 27th – November 5, 2012. The best in show will be chosen after the show is hung by the jurors and will win a solo exhibition at the gallery, at a date to be determined by the gallery owner and winner, within one year of winning. The winner of the 1st Annual Juried Art Show is now represented by a major gallery in New York City.

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CADVA is teaming up with NYU Operation Dreamcatchers for an empowerment session with an art exhibit depicting domestic violence: ”Taking Domestic Violence Beyond the Social and Traditional Expectations of the Caribbean-American Community.”

It’s Part I in this series themed: ”REFLECTIONS; FACES OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE .”This interactive session was embraced by other Caribbean Communities recently featuring the work of renounced Guyanese Artist, Carl Anderson.

February 25, 2012 marked the historic launching of  CADVA, INC. in Orlando, Florida, USA. Caribbean American Domestic Violence Awareness is a registered organization in the State of Florida, United States.

CADVA’s Goal: Leave a legacy and a roadmap behind for any one person who thinks he or she cannot make a difference.

CADVA’s Vision: “When Victims have no more strength, CADVA will be their strength. When they have been silenced, CADVA will be their voice. When they have been made to feel worthless, CADVA will transform them into priceless gems”

Work began long before the formal launch under Break the Silence, Say No to Violence, a message coined by Dianne Madray. This organization encourages, facilitates and teaches those having knowledge of abuse to speak up through the processes of empowerment, how to react when witnessing abuse and taking each peculiar circumstance into consideration. CADVA guides victims to make choices best suited for their own particular circumstances. CADVA brings ‘grass roots’ open discussion sessions to targeted communities.

CADVA was founded by a survivor, Sukree Boodram, author of Breakout: Surviving Abuse and Alcoholism. This is My Story. See more on her story at: www.sukreeboodram.com.

Launch venue as follows:

Location: 
The Kimmel Center
60 Washington Square South
Room 914
NYC, NY 10012
April 9, 2012 6-8pm

Event Organizer: 
Melissa Bhikham 347-837-1010
mab718@nyu.edu
New York University
Founder & President, NYU Operation Dreamcatchers

CADVA launched in Orlando, Florida and Guyana, South America this year.  Refer to www.cadva.org for more information and how to help support Caribbean-American first Domestic Violence Organization.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Email:           help@cadva.org
US Phone#:  (407)-404-0331 Sukree Boodram, Founder and President
US Phone#:  (917)-399-5764 Dianne Madray, Chief Operations Officer/Program Director
Website:       www.cadva.org
Facebook:    CADVA (Caribbean American Domestic Violence Awareness)
Twitter:         CADVA

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April is National Sexual Assault Awareness Month and Jenny Lynn Anderson is encouraging women to speak out and acknowledge violence against women. Her advocacy is supported in her recently published book ‘Room 939: 15 Minutes of Horror, 20 Years of Healing’.

Her story is based on surviving a brutal robbery and sexual assault in a downtown Atlanta hotel 22 years ago. She offers steps leading to healing and restoration for women who have experienced sexual violence.

Every two minutes someone in the US is sexually assaulted, according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network. Anderson’s two minutes came when she was sexually assaulted at the age of 28 while attending a convention.  In the two decades since that assault, she’s gone through all the emotional stages (shame, denial, anger, avoidance, post-traumatic stress, depression, and forgiveness).  It took 20 years for her to seek counseling to start the healing process and to find the courage to help others by sharing her story.

Today, Anderson is encouraging those who have been sexually assaulted not to consider themselves as victims – but rather as survivors.  “It’s a matter of choice in how you think about it,” she explains, “and I choose to call myself a survivor.  It’s a key to recovery.”

“Women are not empowered on this topic,” Anderson continues. “First of all, going through a sexual assault turns the woman who has been traumatized inward – they are not comfortable talking about it even with close friends.

Understanding what you’re going through is the first step to any kind of recovery.  More than anything, sexual assault and rape victims don’t want to be labeled as such – it makes you feel branded for life with something so hideous and nasty no one will talk about it,” she adds.

Opening up and going to a counselor or other professional for help is critical to the healing process.  “But there’s a hesitation,” Anderson explains.  “You don’t want to re-open wounds, yet if you don’t, you could possibly suffer other mental stresses such as depression.”

Victims of sexual assault are six times more likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.(1) “Post-traumatic stress can keep survivors of sexual assault from recovering,” Anderson says.  “It was 20 years before I sought counseling and that was much too long to wait,” Anderson adds.

Entering counseling began the healing process and speaking out publicly is helping to complete it. Since publishing Room 939, she has travelled the state speaking to womens’ groups, rape/sexual assault crisis centers, book clubs, recovery groups, civic organizations and others.

Anderson’s advice to those who are sexually assaulted – three steps to healing:

For more information about Jenny Lynn Anderson and her book, go to www.jennylynnanderson.com

(1) World Health Organization, 2002

Image Courtesy of  http://www.jennylynnanderson.com/

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Earlier this week a Duke university study concluded that one in four HIV patients were sexually abused as children. Over 600 patients, aged 20-71, were involved in the two-year long study.

The majority of the patients in the study, titled the Coping with HIV/AIDS in the Southeast (Chase), had at one point in their lifetimes been victims of sexual or physical abuse. In addition, fifty percent of the patients were found to have suffered three of more traumatic life experiences, such as sexual or physical abuse, and also domestic violence, the loss of a child, or a loved one’s suicide attempt or completion.

These traumatic experiences, particularly ones in childhood, were also linked to worse health overall among the patients.

By checking and following up on the patients intermittently for a two year period, researchers were able to find links between traumatic experiences, HIV-related behaviors and poorer health conditions.

More traumatic experiences were also linked to patients engaging in unprotected sex, missing proper, antiretroviral medications, trips to the emergency room and hospitalizations. Patients who had been victims of trauma were much more likely to have their health decline or to pass away during the two-year period.

“For whatever outcome we looked at, psychological trauma ended up being a predictor of worse medical outcomes and poorer health-related behaviors,” said lead author Brian Pence, a Duke associate professor of community and family medicine and global health.

Pence went on to say these findings stress the significance of judging a patient’s trauma history when being given HIV care. The results, Pence hopes, can help HIV programs be structured into an environment that advocates safer sex practices, stricter adherence to medicine and better health results for patients receiving aid.

The most surprising part of the study was that the effects of past trauma on recent behavior and health was unable to be explained by normal factors.

“We would expect people with a history of exposure to trauma to have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression or other mental health concerns, like drug abuse or poor coping skills, and that these things in turn would more fully explain why they had lower adherence to their medications and worse health,” Pence said.

“But, we found that trauma history was still associated with bad health outcomes independent of mental health status, drug use or coping styles. So we have more to learn about exactly how past traumatic experiences exert influence on behaviors and health outcomes years down the road.”

The study is set to appear in the April 1 edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes (which can be found online here), with a supplementary editorial. The National Institute of Mental Health helped support the study.

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On  V-Day, the global activist movement to end violence against women and girls, founded by Tony Award-winning playwright and activist, Eve Ensler, announced the launch of a new global campaign: One Billion Rising.

This year-long campaign, V-Day’s most ambitious yet, will culminate on February 14, 2013, V-Day’s 15th anniversary, when women, activists and concerned citizens across the world will organize community gatherings to express their outrage, demand change, strike, and dance in defiance of the injustices they have suffered.

Beginning on V-Day, activists launched the campaign at over 5,800 colleges and community events across the world.  From Zambia to Poland to Malaysia, local V-Day activists will have ignited and spread the message of One Billion Rising.

“More than 1 out of every 3 women on this planet will experience violence during her lifetime. With 7 billion people on the planet, that’s one billion women.  Stopping this violence is as crucial as addressing the issues of disease, hunger, and climate change,” said Eve Ensler.

“One Billion Rising is a global strike, a call to refuse to participate until rape and rape culture ends.  It’s a solidarity reach, a new refusal, and a new way of being.” Over the past 14 years V-Day has mobilized activists from more than 140 countries and worked tirelessly on a grassroots level to demand an end to all forms of violence against women and girls.

In the face of resistance V-Day activists have raised consciousness, changed laws, funded rape crisis centers and domestic violence shelters (often keeping the doors open), educated their communities, and raised over $85 million for groups doing the essential work of ending violence and serving survivors. Still, violence against women and girls persists and takes atrocious new forms. One Billion Rising is an ultimate protest, a battle cry, an inspiration, and a global call to action.

One Billion Rising activists are encouraged to focus on local issues affecting women and girls including work places, home life, laws and legislators, media that supports violence against women and girls, and governments or religious institutions that have not done enough to stop it.  Some may even decide to stop working or participating until the violence culture ends.

As part of this outreach, V-Day will provide a monologue called “Over It,” written by Eve Ensler, to be read at productions of The Vagina Monologues and other V-Day events.  They will challenge its college and community organizers to mobilize their friends, families, and networks to commit to rising up on February 14, 2013 to express their outrage about what they are “over” in relation to the prevalence of violence against women and girls.

Activists are also encouraged to write their own Over It monologues to give voice to their outrage.  V-Girls activists will also play a vital role in the “Over It” campaign. The announcement of One Billion Rising kicks off V-Day’s 2012 season of events and campaigns.  Over 1,850 colleges and communities will host V-Day benefit events raising funds and awareness locally, spotlighting the women and girls of Haiti, and beginning their One Billion Rising initiatives.

Events center around Ensler’s seminal play The Vagina Monologues, but include readings of V-Day’s anthology A Memory, Monologue, A Rant, and a Prayer and Any One of Us: Words from Prison, documentary film screenings of V-Day: Until The Violence Stops and What I Want My Words To Do To You, and Congo and Haiti Campaign teach-ins and house parties.

For the second year in a row, each event will highlight Haiti, shining a global spotlight on the issues facing women and girls in the region post-earthquake, and V-Day’s campaign to end the violence.

On February 14, 2013, together V-Day activists will move the earth, activating women and men to dance across every country. The celebration of One Billion Rising will be a worldwide happening.

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As the national news media continues to focus on the Sandusky and Syracuse child abuse allegations, a coalition of national experts applauded a bill introduced this week by U.S. Senators.

John Kerry (D-MA) and Susan Collins (R-ME) and U.S. Representatives Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) and Joseph Crowley (D-NY), who were joined by ten members of the House Ways and Means Committee, proposed a bill that could make a significant impact towards reducing fatalities resulting from child abuse and neglect, and make improvements throughout the child welfare system.

More than seven children die from abuse and neglect every day in America – some 2,500 a year – reflecting the estimated 50 percent undercounting in the officially estimated figure of 1,560. A child is abused or neglected every 36 seconds in the United States, yet only 40 percent of abused children with substantiated cases receive services, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Representatives of the National Coalition to End Child Abuse Deaths (NCECAD) expressed concern that the current national media attention being paid to the Sandusky and Syracuse child abuse allegations would not create the needed additional pressure on Congress to deal with wider child death and abuse problems.

Such focused attention on specific abuse cases often obscures the need for wider attention to the problem, according to the NCECAD experts. Pointing to the need for multi-faced solutions, NCECAD members applauded the recently introduced Protect Our Kids Act, which would establish a commission to study and evaluate federal, state, and local public and private child welfare systems.

Protect Our Kids would also develop a national strategy and recommendations for preventing child abuse and reducing fatalities resulting from child abuse and neglect.  The full text of the legislation is available online at www.endchildabusedeaths.org.

Kimberly Day, spokesperson for the National Coalition to End Child Abuse Deaths, said:  ”It is important that the media is covering the most recent high profile and horrific child sexual abuse cases, but it is also important that the public understand that what they are hearing is only part of a larger problem of child abuse and neglect in the United States.

The proposed bill will provide a national strategy for improving our child protection system by recommending practices that protect children and prevent abuse and neglect”. ”This legislation in an important step that Congress and our nation need to take in order to better protect our children from abuse and neglect,” said Senator Collins.

“This is not a Democratic or Republican issue – this is an American issue – one that we can’t wish away, but that we must face head on and work to eradicate. Our legislation would establish a commission to develop a comprehensive national strategy for reducing child abuse fatalities.  An increased understanding and awareness of child abuse and neglect can lead to improvement in agency systems and practices and help prevent future child abuse fatalities.”

Rep. Doggett, ranking member of the Human Resources Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over this issue stated, ”Addressing this ongoing tragedy requires a better understanding of the causes of abuse and neglect and a determination of the most effective steps to prevent maltreatment. This bipartisan commission offers a way to develop a more coordinated, national response.”

“As a father to three young kids, it breaks my heart to hear the thousands of stories of children suffering from abuse or neglect every day. What’s worse is the alarming number of children who die each year from mistreatment. The simple fact is, even one child’s death from abuse, neglect or maltreatment is one too many,” said Rep. Crowley.

“This is an issue of grave concern and one that deserves a national focus. That’s why I’m proud to fight alongside tireless advocates like the National Coalition to End Child Abuse Deaths, and I am glad to have worked with them and my colleagues in creating legislation that will help determine how we as a nation can better protect our children.”

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Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Police rescued 24 people kept in “filthy and cramped” living conditions, on Sunday morning. They also arrested 5 persons under the Slavery and Servitude Act 2010.

Greenacre caravan site was disturbed by dog-handling officers, a helicopter and firearms support from local Major Crime units, and UK Human Trafficking Centre in search of 15 possible persons forced to live and work in harsh conditions.

According to Sean O’Neil, Detective Chief Inspector, police units have been aware, since 2008, of 28 persons who have made accusations of slavery. After searching the place, 24 people were found “living and working in a state of virtual slavery.”  The victims were from England, Poland and Romania, while LeightonBuzzardOnline stated Slovakians were involved as well.

“One man was found to be covered in dog excrement, while others were so malnourished that an intake of proper food may kill them,” LeightonBuzzardOnline said. People were recruited from soup kitchens and benefits offices, being promised to receive £80 per day, in addition to board and lodgings.

Instead, they had their hair cut off; they were kept in “horseboxes, dog kennels, and old caravans” and worked for nothing or for little food. The time they spent there ranged between a few months to 15 years, being forced to work for British and Scandinavian projects, detectives said.

In some cases, on Sundays, the prisoners’ only day of rest, they were obliged to get up at 6 a.m. to clean the travellers site. The individuals’ present mental conditions are poor. Immediately after the raid, they were given medical and professional assistance – a specialist in torture was there to offer support and assistance as well.

Most of them were among the most “vulnerable category of people in society, who can disappear and be held here without anyone knowing they were missing,” Sean O’Neil said, according to BBC UK. The five persons arrested are 4 men and one woman, being identified as Irish. Further interviews will be held and accusations established. Money, drugs and weapons were found at the location.

In light of such events, many believe it is necessary that Europe revisit it’s policy of respect for human. Migrants to Western Europe as well as nomadic population are still an issue for the European Community and their living conditions and working facilities are to be revised in order to avoid such inhumane cases of abuse and mistreatment from reoccurring.

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The United States Embassy cable released by WikiLeaks reveals United Nations peacekeepers engaging in sexual misconduct with underage girls in Ivory Coast. Written in January 2010, the cable highlights the inappropriate actions of Beninese peacekeepers located in the poverty ridden western town of Toulepleu.

According to the cable, parents encouraged their daughters to sleep with the peacekeepers so they would provide for them. In 2009, Save The Children U.K., an aid organization, conducted a poll of 10 girls in Toulepleu.

“Eight of the 10 said they had ongoing sexual relationships with Beninese soldiers in exchange for food or lodging,” the diplomat wrote in the cable, citing information shared with the embassy by a protection officer. Hamadoun Toure, U.N. mission spokesman, said the UN is concerned about the allegations and are taking the matter seriously.

“We have a zero-tolerance policy. We are here to protect the population, not engage in such things,” Toure said. The mission released an official statement on Thursday night concerning the misconduct. It stated said that authorities have formed a campaign with the soldiers to deal with what appears to be an ongoing problem. He said UN officials have traveled to the west on a “fact-finding mission.”

After receiving the reports two weeks ago, the Ivory Coast mission informed UN Headquarters, the Ivorian government and the home countries of the accused soldiers, according to the statement. The UN declined to mention the soldiers’ countries, citing confidentiality. Toure said any guilty soldiers would face repatriation and punishment from the judicial system in their own countries.

Earlier last week, UN spokesman Michel Bonnardeaux confirmed that 16 Beninese peacekeepers, 10 of which were commanders, engaged in sexual misconduct. According to the Associated Press, Bonnardeaux said that authorities “failed to maintain an environment that prevents sexual exploitation and abuse.” 

Bonnardeaux added that 42 allegations of sexual abuse by UN staff in Ivory Coast have been reported since 2007. Sixteen of these cases involved minors. According to UN records, no new incidents have been reported this year. “If these allegations are founded, it would be the responsibility of the countries from which these peacekeepers come to take appropriate action against those involved,” the UN said in a statement.

Sexual misconduct by UN troops has been reported in a number of countries including Congo, Cambodia and Haiti. New abuse allegations against UN peacemakers in Haiti came to light on Friday. 

According to an Al Jazeera article written Saturday, peacekeepers in Haiti face allegations of sexual abuse. The UN is investigating accusations that Uruguayan soldiers serving with the world body’s peacekeeping force in Haiti sexually assaulted an 18-year old man. Footage of the incident was captured by a mobile phone and was circulated throughout the country.

“We’re aware of this alleged incident. As soon as it was brought to our attention we immediately launched an internal investigation,” said Eliana Nabaa, spokeswoman for the UN’s Haiti peacekeeping mission, said on Friday. Nabaa echoed a message very similar to Toure’s remarks on the abuse in the Ivory Coast. 

“We have a zero-tolerance policy towards sexual exploitation and abuse and we take it extremely seriously. If the allegations are proved, the soldiers must be brought to justice,” Nabaa said. A Haitian magistrate told the Agence France-Presse on Friday that he had turned the case over to prosecutors after viewing the evidence.

The alleged victim and his parents gave depositions in a courthouse in Port Salut, the southern seaside town where the attack is said to have occurred. The Haitian magistrate added that he was also investigating allegations of sexual relations between Uruguayan peacekeepers and young Haitian females who had become pregnant.

Bonnardeaux said the troops involved in the alleged incident in Haiti have been confined to their barracks while the investigation is conducted.

homeros / Shutterstock.com

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Rihanna’s new music video gave everyone something to speak about. The music video featuring the song “Man Down” which was aired on May 31st brought too much controversy.

As the video starts, it already grabs the viewer by showing an atmosphere of poverty, where people are walking through the street, following by the image of a girl (Rihanna) coming out from the shadow and shooting a man on the head. The end of the video, puts all the pieces of the puzzle together, and helps answer the question, why did she shoot him? And it basically demonstrates that the man abused her, so she did this as a revenge action.

Paul Porter, co-founder of Industry Ears, described the video’s violent scene as “a cold, calculated execution of murder in prime time.”

The intention of the video was mainly to re enforce the woman figure, and to evoke a strong feminine figure. Rihanna shared these words on Twitter to all her fans: “Young girls/women all over the world…we are a lot of things! We’re strong innocent fun flirtatious vulnerable, and sometimes our innocence can cause us to be naive! We always think it could NEVER be us, but in reality, it can happen to ANY of us! So ladies be careful.”

The Parents Television Council, the Enough is Enough campaign, and entertainment think tank Industry Ears called on BET and its parent company Viacom to stop airing the video. Melissa Henson of the Parents Television Council said, “Instead of telling victims they should seek help, Rihanna released a music video that gives retaliation in the form of premeditated murder the imprimatur of acceptability.”

Rihanna, a victim of violence herself,  has already reference domestic violence in other situations before, when she recorded the song “I love the way you lie, which featured Eminem.

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