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Assault coalition fears COVID-19 pandemic may push numbers up
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Posted on May 04 2020
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Northern Marianas Coalition Against Domestic & Sexual Violence migrated one of the activities it had lined up for the commemoration of Sexual Assault Awareness Month last April.
According to Audrey Ada, sexual assault response team manager, their coalition conducted a 30-day Sexual Assault Awareness Month challenge through social media. “The National Sexual Violence Resource Center held a different prompt every day to allow them to share information in terms of resources or positivity throughout social media,” she said. “Also they held an annual prayer last weekend at the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa and Grace Christian Church. We were able to reflect briefly on the thought of Sexual Assault Awareness Month.”
This comes at a time when the CNMI and the rest of the world are staying home to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus. That situation‚— a quasi-lockdown and stay-at-home guidelines—may have likely pushed the rate of child abuse in the CNMI to go up, according to NMCADSV executive director Maisei Tenorio.
“However, we don’t have the actual numbers to back it up. But what we do know is that victims are reaching out for help in small numbers due to all of us staying at home,” she said.
“Additional stressors due to the pandemic, like the use of alcohol or drugs, may be exacerbating the situation, making things worse for the frequency of violence and severity of abuse or both. [Yet] victims are not reaching out as frequently as they were prior to the pandemic,” she said.
Victims may have very limited ways of reaching out for help, “but if our community takes time to check in with people in their life, family, and neighborhood this could be the lifeline that victims need,” she added.
Tenorio also stated that it is important that all of us do what we can provide that helping hand or lifeline to victims.
To reach out, you may call the Office of the Attorney General’s Victim Witness Advocacy Unit that is open Monday-Thursday from 8am to 12pm and can be reached at 237-7600. You can also visit NMCADSV on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to learn more about domestic violence and sexual assault. (Chevy Alipio)
