WORKSHOP IN NYC: "Don't Remain a Victim: You Can Avoid a Lifetime of Abuse"

MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR MARCH 9, 2013! 

The Human Lactation Center's panel discussion "Don't Remain a Victim: You Can Avoid a Lifetime of Abuse" will be presented at the Committee on the Status of Women conference on Saturday, March 9, 2013 from 12:30 to 2:00 in the Boss Room (8th floor) at the Church Center, 777 First Avenue at 44th St., New York City (across the street from the UN).

The session is free and open to the public.  You are welcome to come and bring friends!

Best regards,

Dana Raphael, Ph.D.
Director
The Human Lactation Center, Ltd.
Westport, CT 06880

 
Don't Remain a Victim: You Can Avoid a Lifetime of Abuse.

When: Saturday March 9, 2013

            12:30 PM - 2:00 PM

Where:  Church Center

              Boss Room (8th Floor)

              777 First Avenue

              New York City, NY

Women victimized as children are more vulnerable to revictimization throughout their lifetime.  Studies reveal that women serving in the U.S. military who report sexual assault tend to have been sexually abused previously, and women helped in rape crisis centers often have been subject to domestic violence or childhood sexual abuse.  Likewise, these child victims are vulnerable to a host of predators and are in danger of suffering a lifetime of abuse.  This session discusses various kinds of systemic, institutionalized victimization.  We describe how this occurs, an d how to identify and overcome patterns of harm.
 

SPEAKERS & THEIR TALK TOPICS
 

Pamela Perskin Noblitt, co-author of Ritual Abuse and Torture in the 21st Century.  Ms. Noblitt cannot be with us in March, but she is submitting a paper entitled, "Resources for Recovery," which will be presented by Jan Kraft. 

Natsuko Utsumi, founder of the nonprofit, Cause Vision, will speak on  "Prevention of revictimization through exposing human trafficking."  The education of young girls is essential to prevent human tragedy.  Ms. Utsumi will describe the comic educational booklet she designed and is distributing to young girls throughout the public school system in Mexico.  She is also now working on vulnerable areas in Vietnam.

She will introduce Gabriela Nava Campos, a fellow graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government who works directly with victims of human trafficking.  Ms. Campos will address revictimization in the context of human trafficking and suggest what she has found to be the „best practices‰ that other organizations can use in order to help victim survivors, such as understanding the reality of trafficking and how it can increase vulnerability to re-victimization.  She will talk about her experiences in this area and offer suggestion to other agensies and organizations dealing with victims.


Judy Meikle, a Quaker and a facilitator of the Alternatives to Violence Project, will speak on "Prison Revictimization from an Abolitionist Perspective."  When people become the victim of a crime, American society primarily responds through the criminal justice system. This system is biased and punishing and as we know occurs with greater impact on persons in low income communites and people of color.   Within this system, there is very little successful rehabilitation. The Alternatives to Violence Project holds workshops inside maximum security prisons.  Judy Melkle will discuss her experience of dealing with the criminal justice system and explain her aboli tionist perspective for reducing revictimization.

 
Vicki Polin is the founder and CEO of The Awareness Center, (which is the international Jewish Coalition Against Sexual Abuse/assault, an organization dedicated to ending sex crimes in Jewish communities globally.  She has worked as an advocacy for survivors of for decades and brings extensive knowledge of the impact of war atrocities on second generation family members, including the children of those who were Holocaust survivors and children of the Nazi jailors.

Dana Raphael, Director of The Human Lactation Center, Ltd., will speak on "The Urban Myths That Hurt Everyone."  She postuates that the sixties and seventies were a time for Scapegoating, with lies and extraordinary tales.  Ignoring history and good common sense, accusations were made against people throughout the country.  Confronted by the Vietnam war, newsworthy and famous persons were singled out.  Oppenheimer was shunned for his role in the development of the atom bomb.  Hollywood became rife with communists.  Anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon (just recently honored by receiving a seat in the National Academy of Sciences), was accused of deliberately giving measles to the Yanamamo leading to their death, and it took decades to wipe out the insult.  Margaret Mead was vilifed by a wild Australian who claimed her informants lied to her, thus making all her major contributions invalid.

I too was caught in the development of the Urban Myths of that period -- I, who started the anti-formula controversy, learned to regret it.  The AAA had proposed to tell the World Health Organization of any infringement on their edict to tattle on milk companies if they gave mothers a sample of their product.  I changed my opinion and was victimized, called a „multinational lover‰ and worse by a Harvard professor for speaking against this proposal.  Only after I had visited 11 different areas where we had anthropologists exploring infant feeding practices did I finally understand that it was the lack of sufficent weaning food that was killing babies, not the few samples given away at the hospital.   „Nestles kills babies‰ became the Urban Legend of that era.  So, this is a warning: Urban Myths are contagious and must be questioned, else they become fact.