WCC Meet The Pros Event

       Beyond the Journey: 

International Crisis Reporting

Melissa Turley

  The Pulitzer Center is an organization that gives journalists the opportunity to travel to different parts of the world and report on crisis' that otherwise would go underreported.

    On Thursday April 25, 2013 at the Westchester Community College Meet The Pros event, students and myself were able to meet two young journalists, Melissa Turley and Allison Shelley as they told their stories about their journey's to South Africa and Nepal to report on the underreported crisis' happening in those places. The event also gave the audience an opportunity to hear from this years Pulitzer Center winner, Devon Smith about her upcoming journey to report in Northern Ireland.  

    The first speaker to tell her story was Melissa Turley. Melissa Turley traveled to South Africa to report on gender equality. In South Africa, men are superior to women. Turley discussed how South Africa has won the battle to stop apartheid, but the battle is still being fought to provide women with equal rights. Homosexual women specifically are looked down upon as unequal in South Africa.
      Turley spoke extensively about lesbians in South Africa and the hardships and isolation they face because of their sexuality.
        Gay women are seen as unequal and abnormal in South Africa. Lesbians are treated so poorly that there have actually been gay women murdered in South Africa because of their sexuality. Turley also spoke about the truth that some lesbians are raped by other men. The men feel that if they have sex with a lesbian, the women will become straight, police share the same sentiment. Turley says that lesbians feel isolated because when they are violated, they don't have anywhere to turn. Police either laugh at them or refuse to help.
   Turley also discussed the Rural Women's Movement. The South Africa constitution says that women and men are supposed to be equal. However, customary law gives men superiority over women. The Rural Women's Movement hopes to accomplish awareness, specifically their goal is to make rural women aware of their constitutional rights.

   Melissa Turley's presentation also included a video that discussed the horrible living conditions that families experience when living in townships in Langa. The townships were brought about because of the 1923 Urban Areas Act. This act forced African Americans to move to these townships and endure terrible living conditions. Terrible living conditions like crowdedness, over packed homes, and some homes are even without water, heat, and toilets.

      Melissa Turley also tackled the issue of prostitution. Prostitution in South Africa is illegal. However, people are attempting to make prostitution legal, they feel if it is legalized women could be safer, as it pertains to contracting the HIV virus. The HIV virus has become an epidemic in South Africa. The epidemic has turned South Africa into the highest rated HIV country in the world.

Allison Shelley

  To learn about a possible solution to the HIV epidemic in South Africa, click here
  
   Allison Shelley was the next speaker to tell her story at the meet the pros event. Shelley traveled to Nepal to report on the story about young girls and the Hindu practice called chaupadi. Shelley spoke extensively about chaupadi. Chaupadi is a practice where young girls and women must live in uncomfortable animal sheds when they are menstruating. Women also must stay in these animals sheds after they give birth. Sometimes women have to share these sheds with multiple people. Shelley says that when women are menstruating they are seen as dirty and untouchable. Therefore they must stay in the animal hut because they are forbidden from entering their home and cannot touch food or water that is being shared with others. They also cannot attend school.
   




  Chaupadi can have significant risks as well. Those practicing chaupadi have reported being raped, some women have died from snakebites, hypothermia, and severe bleeding. When the weather is cold, living in animal sheds is very difficult, one woman actually died from trying to light a fire for warmth. Most people see this practice as a way of life. However, Shelley told a story about a father in Nepal who did not want his girls to live in animal sheds. Instead, the father kept the girls in his home while they were menstruating. A problem ended up occurring however. The girls got paralysis. The father was told by a doctor he had to let his girls live in the animal huts. The girls father realized at that point he had no other alternative but to have his girls practice chaupadi. Once the girls began practicing chaupadi, miraculously the girls recovered from the paralysis.


 

 



Shelley also spoke about maternal care in Nepal. Nepal has made progress in their maternal mortality rate. By the year 2015, Nepal is expected to go down two-thirds in their maternal mortality rate.
   Shelley also touched on what is forced upon young girls in Nepal. Young girls in Nepal live a hard life. They must get married and then get pregnant at a very young age. In fact, Allison followed one 16 year old through her pregnancy.
       The event ended with a young girl named Devon Smith, this years Pulitzer Center winner. Smith discussed where she will be reporting and what she will be reporting on. She will be traveling to Northern Ireland to report on segregation. Specifically, segregation as it pertains to religion. The student told the audience the news that there are people in Northern Ireland who have never met someone of a different faith. The winner will also report on the violence that occurs in Northern Ireland.
      I enjoyed the meet the pros event very much. I left learning many things, and not only was it an enjoyable experience, but it was a rewarding experience as well.
        To learn more about the Pulitzer Center, and to read Melissa Turley and Allison Shelley's stories visit, http://pulitzercenter.org/