Advocacy, Living, and Mentoring After Assault
Thank You for having the courage and curiosity to visit this website. Sexual violence is a crime against humanity. Despite the staggering number of individuals impacted by sexual violence, it has remained a taboo subject in our society due to the negative emotions evoked by sexual assault, rape, and incest.
While sexual violence will continue to remain a very painful topic, we as a society cannot remain silent. To do so would be to jeopardize the emotional well-being of future generations. The time to speak is now.
ALMAA’s mission is twofold: to assist victims of sexual violence, and to prevent future acts by increasing the general public’s awareness of sexual violence.
Please watch the below video entitled "One....". This compelling video informs the public about the instances of sexual violence and highlights ALMAA's mission to create awareness and promote sexual violence preventive education for all school aged children, young adults, and the general public. "One...." was produced for ALMAA.org courtesy of a creative grant from IAMEPIC.org.
The Issues at Hand
Here are some staggering statistics about sexual violence. Unless one of these situations is personally encountered, most people would have no awareness of its existence:Fact: 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys will have been sexually violated by the time they reach their 18th birthday (1)
Fact: 75% of victims of sexual violence that come forth as adults have been sexually violated as minors (2)
Fact: Someone in the United States falls victim to sexual violence every 2 minutes (3)
Fact: Victims of sexual violence report higher rates of drug, alcohol and substance abuse than their peers (4)
Fact: Female inmates have a higher rate of being victims of sexual violence (5)
Fact: 66% of women who have identified themselves as prostitutes were sexually violated as minors (6)
(1) Findings From the National Violence Against Women Survey, November 2000
(2) CDC, Sexual Violence, Spring 2008
(3) U.S.Dept. of Justice National Crime Victimization Survey, 2007
(4) www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention 1 c page 12
(5) National Prison Rape Commission Report, June 2009 page 41
(6) icasa.org/docs/prostitution page 25
ALMAA is committed on a very personal level to make the public stand up and pay attention to this cause. The people shown facing you on the HOME PAGE of this website are victims of sexual violence. While their individual stories are not the focus of this website, know that sexual violence can and does happen to people like us.
Further, ALMAA has purposely chosen not to utilize models or stock photos for our web pages. Victims’ families, friends and ALMAA’s numerous volunteers are depicted on all of this site's pages. Yes, this is personal to us and it is our mission to make the subject of sexual violence personal to you.
ALMAA wants you to leave this website filled with Hope. Hope derived from the knowledge that by creating Awareness, providing Preventive Education, and developing a Non-Judgmental Network for victims and their families, together we will be able to nurture self-aware young people and assist those whose lives have been traumatized by sexual violence.
Please spread the word to your friends and families about ALMAA. We encourage you to get involved and donate according to your ability. With our collective efforts, we will be able to make a positive impact on a societal evil that can no longer be ignored.
“We must be the change we wish to see in the world.”