Stand Against Violence
Help those who need your courage to stand against violence.
War-Torn Countries and Violence
A violent conflict involves at least two parties using physical force to resolve competing claims or interests. Violent conflicts may occur among individuals or groups not affiliated with a government, but the term is most commonly applied as a synonym for war. At whatever level it occurs, a violent conflict usually involves more than one confrontation.
People caught in such situations are usually left with deaths of families and loved ones, psychiatric problems, mental disabilities and/or nothing.
The Problem is everywhere
- U.S. youth homicide rates are more than 10 times that of other leading industrial nations, on par with the rates in developing countries and those experiencing rapid social and economic changes. [World Report on Violence and Health, World Health Organization, 2002]
- Direct expenditures for corrections (e.g., prisons and jails) by local, state and federal governments between 1982 and 2005 increased 619 percent to $65 billion per year. [Direct Expenditures by Criminal Justice Function, 1982-2005, Bureau of Justice Statistics]
- In 2005, 5,686 young people ages 10 to 24 were murdered--an average of 16 each day. [Youth Violence Facts at a Glance, Summer 2008, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)]
- One in six American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape, and 10% of sexual assault victims are men. [2004 National Crime Victimization Survey]
- In 2007, approximately 14,000 terrorist incidents occurred worldwide, and deaths caused increased to 22,000 persons. [Report on Terrorist Incidents, 2006 (issued April 2008), National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC)]
- Persons under the age of 25 accounted for 50 percent of those arrested for murder and 65 percent of those arrested for robbery in 2006. [Youth Violence Facts at a Glance, Summer 2008, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)]
- Worldwide, an estimated 1.6 million people lost their lives to violence in 2000. About half were suicides, one-third were homicides, and one-fifth were casualties of armed conflict. [World Report on Violence and Health, World Health Organization, 2002]
- In 2001, there were approximately 21,000 homicides and 31,000 suicides; and nearly 1.8 million people were assaulted, while about 323,000 harmed themselves and were treated in hospital emergency departments. [Surveillance for Fatal and Nonfatal Injuries – 2001, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Vital Statistics System]
- Domestic Violence is the single greatest cause of injury to women. [Journal of Amer. Med. Assoc.]
Victums' Testamonies
Arn Chorn Pond
When the Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975, Chorn-Pond and hundreds of other children were sent to Wat Ek, a Buddhist temple converted into a prison camp, where he survived by playing the flute and keeping the soldiers entertained.[3]
In five days a master trained Chorn-Pond and four other children to play the flute and the khim, a Cambodian hammered dulcimer. The children learned to play a traditional lullaby known as bompay. At the end of that time, Chorn-Pond and another boy were chosen to play propaganda songs for the camp guards. The other three children and the master were led away and killed.[4] "When they brought in another old master for more lessons," Chorn-Pond recalled, "I begged them not to kill him. I told them I didn’t have enough skills yet, and I offered them my own life instead."[5] On a visit to Cambodia in 1996, he was reunited with his teacher.[6][7]
In a 2002 interview Chorn-Pond described how his survival depended on repressing his emotions and distancing himself from the horror of his situation:
"I was in a temple where they killed three or four times a day. They told us to watch and not to show any emotion at all. They would kill us if we reacted...if we cried, or showed that we cared about the victims. They would kill you right away. So I had to shut it all off...I can shut off everything in my body, practically, physically. I saw them killing people right in front of me, the blood was there, but I didn't smell it. I made myself numb...The killing was unbearable. You go crazy if you smell the blood."[8]When the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia in 1978, Chorn-Pond was handed a gun and forced to fight:
"The Khmer Rouge gave us guns and pushed us into the front line. Children who refused were shot in the head. Many of us ranged from eight [and] up, so long as we could carry guns. I was then about twelve. The Khmer Rouge would shoot us from behind if, against orders, we tried to leave the battleground. Thousands of children got shot to the left and right of me, many of them good friends."[9]His Video is down below
Christians in Syria
A tragedy of unbelievable proportions is unfolding in Syria. The Christians believe they are the meat in the sandwich, squeezed between the rebel forces with their extremist Islamist allies and the government forces. They are caught in the middle of a conflict not of their making. Increasingly the rebel forces are deliberately targeting them. When the al-Nusra Front takes an area, they systematically destroy all Christian symbols. The Christians are faced now with a disaster that is leading many of them to question whether the Church will survive in Syria. Many see this as Iraq Mark 2. Just as the Christians of Iraq were ethnically cleansed, with Western acquiescence, so today Western countries are supporting the Gulf States and Turkey who are facilitating the rebel fighters who want to introduce sharia and destroy Christianity.
The war in Syria has left many children traumatised
I have just returned from Lebanon, where Barnabas Aid had brought together a range of Christians from different parts of Syria, each with their own heart-breaking story to tell about how the conflict there is affecting them and those for whom they care. Among the accounts I heard were: a woman who is too afraid to leave her home to go to work for fear of being raped; courageous and creative church leaders who are working tirelessly to help meet the needs of their splintered congregations; analyses from a journalist and a senior politician, in particular of the potential consequences for Christians.
I want to share with you some of the testimonies that paint a picture of what life is like for Syrian Christians trapped in this war zone. To protect their security, I have not included their names. The following story reveals the terrifying reality for Christian women, whom Islamist militants within the opposition believe they have the right to rape:
I am a working woman, I used to work in Damascus. My family lives in Qateena (a Christian village). Throughout the incidents, I used to commute between the two places. One month ago I was in a workshop here and received a phone call from a friend in Aleppo saying, ‘Please pray for us.’ I asked, ‘Why?’ Answer: ‘Because I want to commit suicide. Two of my friends were raped by armed groups and I do not want to be raped as they were.’
All of us at the workshop were shocked and fearful for women in Syria. To fear death is something. To fear rape is something else. I felt I had discovered something in my personality, fear of rape and humiliation, not fear of death.
Lakshmi (fictional character representing a real issue)
Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a small hut in the mountains of Nepal. Her family is desperately poor, but her life is full of simple pleasures, like raising her black-and-white speckled goat, and having her mother brush her hair by the light of an oil lamp. But when the harsh Himalayan monsoons wash away all that remains of the family’s crops, Lakshmi’s stepfather says she must leave home and take a job to support her family.
He introduces her to a charming stranger who tells her she will find her a job as a maid working for a wealthy woman in the city. Glad to be able to help, Lakshmi undertakes the long journey to India and arrives at “Happiness House” full of hope. But she soon learns the horrible truth: she has been sold into prostitution. She starts crying immediately.
An old woman named Mumtaz rules the brothel with cruelty and cunning. She tells Lakshmi that she is trapped there until she can pay off her family’s debt – then cheats Lakshmi of her meager earnings so that she can never leave.
Lakshmi’s life becomes a nightmare from which she cannot escape. Still, she lives by her mother’s words – “Simply to endure is to triumph” – and gradually, she forms friendships with the other girls that enable her to survive in this terrifying new life. She also teaches herself to read and speak in English through listening the conversations of people around her and books she manages to take.
Eventually, Lakshmi meets an American man, who arrives and disguises himself as a client to gather the evidence he needs to prosecute Mumtaz and her associates. Mumtaz is ultimately arrested, thus freeing Lakshmi and the other girls.
How can you possibly help?
Though helping seems too small for such a large issue, that is not the case. Raising awareness for an issue is something small and in your community you can do. This will build support and a group who will stand with you in your mission to end violence. Also you can volunteer for organizations like Unicef and the UN.