Monday, January 29, 2007
First-year international student calls for end to violence
against women and wins annual college peace speech
contest
GOSHEN, Ind. – Around the world, at least
one in three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise
abused in her lifetime, according to the Johns Hopkins School of
Public Health and the Center for Health and Gender
Equity.
This and other information about global
violence against women was presented by Goshen College first-year
student Niti Mishra to a crowd that filled Goshen College’s
Umble Center on Jan. 23 for the 2007 C. Henry Smith Peace
Oratorical Contest. Mishra won the competition with her speech
“Gender Violence: A Challenge Across
Borders.”
“I was about 12 years old when I first
came to understand what violence against women could mean,”
said Mishra, an accounting major from Brampton, Ontario, Canada,
and originally from Nepal. Violence against women is nothing
new. The way our culture is set up definitely provides a platform
for this kind of cruelty to exist. ... Though my awakening to this
violence came in Nepal, girls and women fall victim to mistreatment
and injustice in countries across the world.”
Mishra noted that women in economically
desperate situations often are the victims of such violence,
whether at the hands of their husbands or boyfriends, or when sold
into prostitution by family. She said that in Nepal, 172,000 girls
have been “trafficked” or forced into a life of
prostitution. Women and girls are also the victims of war, Mishra
said, because “rape is used in armed conflicts to intimidate,
conquer and control women and their
communities.”
But Mishra didn't want her audience to get too
comfortable thinking that violence against women was a distant
issue. “The abuse and violence of course does not prevail in
Third World countries only,” she said. “In the United
States, a woman is raped every six minutes; a woman is battered
every 15 seconds.”
The effects of such violence, Mishra noted, are
wide-ranging, including physical, emotional, social, mental and
psychological. And though the physical effects can be quite
significant, she said that researchers have found out that the
psychological effects are “more severe and debilitating than
the physical ones.”
Mishra, the daughter of Jyoti Singh K.C.
Mishra, called her audience to action – to donate to
organizations that help women and children around the world and to
speak out for women's rights. We need to recognize that abuse
is a fundamental violation of numerous human rights. These
violations impact the social, mental, physical and emotional health
of thousands of women, and have a profoundly negative impact on the
development and well-being of numerous families, communities and
entire countries.”
She concluded, “We need to act now. We
should not ever tolerate violence.”
The runner-up for the 2007 competition was first-year student
Georgette Oduor, from Kenya, who spoke about “The Truth About
AIDS in Kenya: How It Affects Children.” She noted that in
2005 Africa had 12 million AIDS orphans and that the number is
expected to rise to 20 million by 2010.
Oduor described to the audience how when her uncle died three
years ago from AIDS, it was her grandmother who was left to care
for his uneducated wife and their seven children. With governments
unable to adequately support AIDS orphans and there being
relatively few orphanages, the alternative is that children end up
on the street, are abused, miss out on an education and lack basic
necessities.
“For these orphans, grandmothers may be the only
alternative to life on the streets. The grandmothers will look
after them as their own, emotionally supporting the children as
they share the same loss,” said Oduor, a nursing major and
the daughter of Evelyn Yobera of Anchorage, Alaska. “But the
grandmothers need to be supported in this noble
responsibility.”
Oduor called on the audience to participate with her in a
project she is starting called “Adopt-a-Granny,” which
will connect the Goshen College community and the youth of her home
church in Kenya, and financially support grandmothers who are
caring for their orphaned grandchildren. “Your support to the
grannies will ensure that the world's most vulnerable future
generation does not end up in hostile environments that could seal
their fate to a life of crime or death from HIV/AIDS,” she
said.
The other contestants and their speeches were: sophomore Analisa
Gerig-Sickles, of West Branch, Iowa, “Women and the Call to
Ministry”; first-year Betsy Houser, from Phoenix, Ariz.,
“Peace, Prosperity and the Promised Land”; and
first-year Drew Stoltzfus, from Souderton, Pa., “The Cosmos
and Evil.”
Because it is a peace oratorical competition, the topics of the
speeches are required to be related to peace, in a universal or
specific context, including war and violence, political policies,
agencies of justice and peace, peacemaking strategies or current
events. The judges for the evening were Goshen Mayor Allan
Kauffman, Goshen College Associate Professor of Peace, Justice and
Conflict Studies Carolyn Schrock-Shenk and co-pastor of Assembly
Mennonite Church Karl Shelly. Associate Professor of Communication
Duane Stoltzfus coordinated the competition.
Participants competed for cash prizes and the top winner,
Mishra, may enter the U.S./Canada Mennonite Central
Committee-sponsored C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest. Last
year’s winner, Goshen College senior Rebecca Fast of
Waterloo, Ontario, won the bi-national competition with her speech
“Misunderstood Minds: Wasted Human Potential” about
learning disabilities.
The trust of C. Henry Smith, a Mennonite historian and professor
at Goshen and Bluffton (Ohio) colleges, funds the contest, which
gives students an opportunity to become involved with the peace
cause while cultivating rhetorical skills. Speech contests have
been part of Goshen College’s history since the early 1900s;
the C. Henry Smith contest allows the campus community to hear more
about relevant, contemporary issues.
Editors: For more information about this release, contact Goshen
College News Bureau Director Jodi H. Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or
jodihb@goshen.edu.
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Goshen College, established in 1894, is a four-year residential
Christian liberal arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite
tradition. The college’s Christ-centered core values –
passionate learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking
and servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the
church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term
program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in
Barron’s Best Buys in Education, Colleges of
Distinction,” “Making a Difference College Guide”
and U.S.News & World Report’s
“America’s Best Colleges” edition, which named
Goshen a “least debt college.” Visit www.goshen.edu.