SEMO Rising event supports victims of sexual assault

As a part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, the Campus Violence Prevention Program at Southeast Missouri State University hosted SEMO Rising April 21.

SEMO Rising is an event that was created to give survivors of sexual assault from Southeast an opportunity to speak and tell their stories, not only to heal their own wounds, but also to spread awareness to others.

The name for this event came from One Billion Rising, a national campaign to end violence against women.

"It really is about a revolution, that's why I like the One Billion Rising, because it is absolutely changing the way we believe, it's changing our culture," Donna St. Sauver, coordinator for the Campus Violence Prevention Program, said. "Interpersonal violence is preventable; it takes education, that's a big part of this event as well, getting the word out that this is a problem."

The event initially was to be held outside on the Academic Terraces, but due to rainy weather conditions, it was moved indoors to the West Gym in the Student Recreation Center-North. But regardless of the venue, the event still went as planned.

To kick off the event, Fingerprint, a student dance group, performed an empowerment dance. And soon after, everyone who attended, survivors and attendees, were invited to participate in a "break the chain" dance, where they got the chance to come together and get loose before the survivors spoke.

There were four survivors who came to speak, one friend of a survivor and one video message from a survivor. But when the floor was opened to anyone else who wanted to come forward to speak, three more survivors came forward to tell their stories, along with one individual who told the story of a victim she had helped.

"Because we created this safe place, they got up and told their story and you could see it in every person's face that it meant a lot to them," St. Sauver said.

Jessica Strunk, one of the survivors, said she wanted to be involved with the event because the message behind it is important for people to hear.

"I think it's so important to get it out there," Strunk said. "Lots of people that go through this think they're going through it alone, and they don't understand that lots of people go through this, so that support is really important."

Strunk said she was surprised by the amount of people who came forward to speak because of how difficult it is to talk about.

"It's so hard, and you don't know how many people are out there that have this, so it takes a lot of courage to get up and say something," Strunk said. "It's mind blowing once you do start hearing everyone's stories, every single time it surprises you that you're not alone."

St. Sauver said this event was not only about bringing awareness to sexual assault, but also was meant to be a supportive and safe place for survivors.

"The main point of SEMO Rising was to show support for survivors, that's the most important thing, because there's so much shame in victim blaming that it's very hard to heal," St. Sauver said.

After the survivors spoke, the night ended with a candlelight vigil and moment of silence for survivors and for those whose lives have been lost due to sexual assault.