Andre Fuller/Roundup
“Stop rape now!”
This was the chant used by men and women that showed up to support the “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” march today.
The Valley Trauma Center hosted the event at the Sherman Oaks Galleria.
According to their Website, www.csun.edu/vtc/, the Valley Trauma Center is a “Non-profit, multicultural organization dedicated to the elimination of sexual and interpersonal violence through healing, empowerment and increased public awareness of prevention strategies.”
The volunteers walked east on Ventura and Sepulveda Boulevard for a half a mile toward Kester Avenue, then walked back to the galleria.
The men that participated in the march, were fitted for their shoes at 10 a.m., followed by two main female speakers. The speakers talked about their experiences with sexual assault, how it affected their lives and what people can do to stand against it.
According to the organization’s Website, walkamileinhershoes.org/, the mission of “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” is “Co-creating a United Gender Movement, men will be a part of the solution to ending sexualized violence.”
Charles Hanson, executive administrator at the Valley Trauma Center, clinical supervisor and a professor of counseling at CSUN, said the term “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” came from an old Native American saying.
“The saying is ‘To truly understand another person’s experiences, you have to walk a mile in their own shoes,'” said Hanson.
He said the girls and women who are victims of sexual assault, rape and domestic violence are our sisters, mothers, friends, daughters and grandmothers.
“Men can personalize it,” said Hanson. “It’s not because it’s important, but because it’s for people we love.”
Hanson doesn’t think people understand the destruction. He believes it’s very damaging and it affects people their whole lives.
“So the idea is we [men] have empathy and sympathy for the ones that are sexually assaulted,” said Hanson. “Most men understand that walking in heels is hard and it hurts.”
Jae Farkas, instructor of the Pierce College Addiction Studies Department’s Domestic Violence Class, gave extra credit to any of her students that decided to attend and help support the event.
“It’s so important that people literally take action to change what’s wrong with the world,” said Farkas. “Not just care, but be passionate and do something about what you’re passionate about.”
A full-time employee at the Valley Trauma Center in the Prevention Education Department, Farkas has been a part of this cause since 2001.
She said her responsibility is to promote for the emergency clinic.
“Most people care about ending rape, child abuse, partner abuse and all forms of violence,” said Farkas. “But [people] don’t know what to do be personally involved.”
She said attending the march is the first step in taking action and being a part of the change she wants to see in the world.
Sheri Cummings, 48, one of the speakers at the event, was sexually assaulted in 2007. She shared her experience and how it affected her personally.
According to Cummings, in the middle of the night on March 29, 2007, a total stranger raped her in her home.
“He was wearing a dark colored sweat shirt with the hood pulled down,” said Cummings. “He had been watching me in my backyard for up to three weeks—waiting for the right time.”
He broke into her home through a kitchen window, according to Cummings. He then came into her bedroom and got on top of her in bed.
“He put a knife to my throat,” said Cummings. “The only words he spoke to me were ‘Shut up or I’ll kill you.'”
According to Cummings, she was afraid that her husband would come home to see her dead and the stranger would kill her two daughters as well.
“I knew my only chance to get out of this alive is to just give into what he wanted,” said Cummings. “Doing that is probably why I’m standing before you now.”
Like Cummings, Marianne Hochman, 43, was a victim of sexual assault. She was the other speaker before the march started.
According to Hochman, she was married to an abuser.
Hochman said one night her ex-husband raped her and held a gun to her head, in front of her daughter. He offered to separate after they sold their house.
“I cautiously told him ‘I think this can work if we get help,'” said Hochman, crying as she reflected on her past. “He replied, in a very cold monotone voice, ‘It’s a good damn thing you answered that way. If you ever leave me, I’ll bankrupt my business to make sure you don’t ever see a damn thing.'”
Steve Austin, 57, in the addiction studies program at Pierce, came to the event with his wife to support the fight against sexual assault.
Austin said one of the stats given to him states that one out of every four women has been affected by abuse at some point in their lives.
“How many women on [Pierce] campus are nervous walking to their car at night or concerned about the first date?” asked Austin. “There is danger for women everywhere.
“There needs to be an awareness brought to males and females as early as possible.”
It’s an awareness that Cheryl Samuelson, Volunteer Specialist at the Valley Trauma Center and sexual assault victim, hopes everyone understands.
“We’re hoping that people understand sexual assault can happen anywhere any time,” said Samuelson.
A graduate student at California State University at Northridge, who want to be a marriage family therapist, Samuelson first heard about the Valley Trauma Center when a representative came to CSUN when she was an undergraduate student.
It’s an experience she feels helped her.
“First I wanted to see if I was over the assault,” said Samuelson, talking about initially working with the trauma unit. “I wanted to see if I could work through the feelings of the assault.
“It gave me the ability to give back to the community,” said Samuelson.
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