End the Backlog

Well life... you are getting to me... But there things that are getting to me more. One of my biggest passions in life is helping sexual assault victims. Anyone who knows me, knows that I fight for them with every inch of my soul.

One way that I do that is to volunteer my time to help those in crisis, whether immediate or a crisis of the mind for the moment. Both are important times to be there for someone.

I found out about the option to be able to help in this matter through the Joyful Heart Foundation (www.joyfulheartfoundation.org). This same organization, along with their founder, Mariska Hargitay, brought to my attention an issue that is beyond unacceptable to me. There is currently a backlog of untested rape kits in this country that is in the hundreds of thousands. Thats hundreds of thousands of victims' kits just sitting on the shelves in crime labs or police stations, just sitting there. Sometimes thats all the evidence for that victim.

By these kits sitting on shelves, you are preventing their offenders from being captured, you are saying in the long run that it is acceptable to do these heinous acts. If that was not hard enough to deal with, there is the actual exam, which can take from 4-6 hours, and may cause a victim to relive the entire experience as they are photographed and examined from head to toe. So they go through the trouble of having this exam, and then the evidence gathered from it just sits on a shelf untested! What else can this say to a victim except, we don't care. Why do we ask them to go through it and then have it just sit there?

Finally, as a volunteer, how can I suggest heading to get a rape exam done and have the kit completed. when I know the chances of it actually being tested are slim. This is something that I cannot do with a right mind, and has made me question how we volunteer and help these victims.

Therefore, I ask that you check out endthebacklog.org to see the ways that you can help endthebacklog.