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| Photo by LINDA DE ROSA Zainab Salbi, founder of Women for Women International, spoke to Wesleyan students in Boyd Dining Center on February 28. |
When Zainab Salbi discovered that 400,000 Bangladeshi women are raped each year, she thought that there would be some organization out there helping those women. When she discovered there was no such agency she felt she had to try to do something to help them. In 1993, Salbi established Women for Women International as an organization to assist women in war torn areas.
Salbi spoke about the organization at a luncheon sponsored by the Women’s Forum at Virginia Wesleyan on Feb. 28. Sharon Payne, advisor of the Women’s Resource Office, member of the Women’s Forum and professor of health and human services, introduced Salbi to the group. “Women for Women is in seven countries ravaged by war and genocide,” said Payne in the introduction. Recently wed, and with a very small budget, she founded the organization that “provides women survivors of war, civil strife, and other conflicts with tools and resources to move from crisis and poverty into a civil society that promotes and protects peace, stability, and self-sufficiency,” according to its brochure.
“I was 23 and had no idea what I was doing,” Salbi said. She did know that 80 percent of all refugees are women and children. Eighty percent of all casualties are also women and children. Women for Women International works with women in America or Canada who want to become either a sponsors or partners.
According to a brochure, a sponsor sends “direct financial aid and emotional support to one woman,” and a partner “support[s] programs to help communities of women in need.” According to Salbi, the most important part of direct sponsorship is “letters from a stranger saying they care, that the world’s still a safe place.” They have local translators for the letters, but the women are given both the original letter and the translated. “For some women, that’s the only source of hope,” said Salbi.
In Columbia, which Salbi describes as “the hardest country we work in,” Women for Women International was unable to do a sponsorship program. They have a group they call “Global Voices,” which is made up of groups of women and community-based projects.
Please see Salbi, page 3
Free food, fun, games and live music. The First Year Leadership Council tried bigger and better things this year as they held an “Up Till Dawn” party in the Boyd Dinning Hall Friday night to sponsor St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Tennessee. “The mission of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is to find cures for children with catastrophic illnesses through research and treatment,” said freshman Jenny Jones, Corporate Marketing Committee on FYLC. “Like every hospital, it takes lots of money for patient care, especially at a children’s hospital. We are here to help raise money for those who need St. Jude’s care.”
This was not a one-group project. FYLC has gotten the whole campus together to help with the funding. FYLC has between 20 and 30 members and they want to get students on campus involved in raising the money for the hospital. “I think it will be good to get everyone on campus involved because we are already a family as it is, and families help each other,” said FYLC President Tara Author. “The Wesleyan family is helping the St. Jude’s family in this case.” Throughout the night there was a variety of musical entertainment ranging from rappers to rock bands. One of Wesleyan’s own bands, My Best Friends, played as well. Two local rappers, Rocadon from Norfolk and Nick Fury from Richmond, also performed. Wesleyan even brought its own version of MTV’s “I Bet You Will” to campus, which was hosted by Chris Douglass. There were also game shows and free food.
There was also musical chairs and one of the biggest events of the night was “Singled Out,” hosted by Phi Sigma Sigma. The two contestants were Douglass and Katie Roth. “We chose Chris because he was known on campus, attractive, nice and very accepting of others,” said junior Phi Sigma Sigma member Lex McMullen. “He is a very funny guy and we knew he would play up the role and it also helped that he was so willing to do this.”
“We chose Katie because she is our RA here,” said senior member Melissa Dedie. “We get to spend a lot of time with her and she likes doing fun stuff like ‘Singled Out.’” This was the first time that Phi Sigma Sigma hosted the event. “We wanted to update our annual dating game and we chose ‘Singled Out’ because most people are familiar with it from when MTV had it,” said Dedie. “Tracy Cedeno, one of the recruitment chair members, came up with the idea and from that point everyone lent a hand. We are not a large group so we all had an important part in making this event a success.”
Though it was a Friday night event, they weren’t really sure what the turnout would be. “I don’t think we knew what to expect because it was the first year we put this version of the game on,” said Dedie. “And we were extremely pleased with the Greek support.”
Please see FYLC, page 3
The newest club at Virginia Wesleyan is all about coming out of the closet, but ironically, they meet in one. The new Gay Lesbian Bisexual Alliance (GLBA) club met on March 6 in the studio in the Fine Arts building, a dark room cluttered with furniture. The Alliance has several ambitious goals for such a new club. Those goals are to build bridges between gay and lesbian students and their straight peers, to defend members from any potential homophobic attacks and to help students feel comfortable with their sexuality, regardless of their preference.
There were 17 members at the March 6 meeting, the largest showing so far. There were also several members of the club who could not attend that meeting. In attendance were the club’s President Liz Ortiz, Vice President Rich Pulley, and Treasurer Neal Reda. Dean of Students David Buckingham and Keith Moore, director of Residence Life, also attended the meeting, showing the administration’s commitment to the new club. Buckingham spoke encouragingly about the need for the club.
“It is needed,” he said. “I think this is a good thing.”
Buckingham also reiterated the administration’s policies on harassment
of gay or lesbian students. “If you encounter difficulty, back away, let
me handle it,” he said, assuring GLBA members that all students will be
held to basic standards of student conduct. One of the issues brought to Buckingham’s
attention was the covering of the AIDS Quilt in Village II. The quilt, which
was created in 1998, was covered up the year after on Parent’s Weekend
and VWC Days, a large sheet of paper taped directly over it.
Buckingham denied knowledge of this practice and told the club that he did not
know who had done it or why, but said he would make sure it did not happen in
the future.
The club also discussed how to reach out to the student body and began tentative planning for a movie night to be held the week after spring break or shortly thereafter to show the movie “But I’m a Cheerleader.” Other ideas included a Wesleyan Coming Out Day, possibly in April. National Coming Out Day is October 11.
Please see GLBA, page 3
-- The Marlin Chronicle received 15 awards in the 2002 Virginia Press Association statewide college competition.
-- The Chronicle has also been awarded an Honorable Mention in the Society of Professional Journalists' annual Mark of Excellence contest for Overall Achievement by a weekly/non-daily college newspaper.
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