The Drama Begins in June

     


                                                Fifa World Cup 2014        



            The Fifa World Cup is a global soccer extravaganza that occurs once every four years. The previous World Cup in 2010 was held in South Africa, with Spain defeating the Netherlands in the final 1-0. To many of those who dont watch soccer, The World Cup is a major soccer tournament that pits 32 nations into 8 groups of four in a random draw. There are over 200 countries in the world and the world cup has room for only 32 teams, meaning nations must qualify through through their respective regions to reach the World Cup. The regions are Asia, Africa, Europe, South America, North America and central America/carribean. Each region is allocated a certain amount of slots. Europe (13 spots) Africa (5 spots) asia (4 spots) South America (5 spots) North America and central America/Carribean has 4 spots. The month long tournament begins june 12 and will be held in brazil. All 32 nations have one dream and that is to hoist the World Cup trophy. This summer the world will see who achieves that coveted feat.  
                                                                                       By: Adam Adamu

Westchester Community College hosts Pulitzer Center Reporters - Meet the Pros

  Allison Shelley and Melissa Turley visited Westchester Community College on April 25^th as part of a “Meet the Pros” event in part of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.  Both of the speakers focused their reporting on women and children issues in foreign countries. 

Melissa Turley South Africa, 2012

Melissa Turley is a student at George Washington University.  She was chosen as the student fellow for the Pulitzer Center program and focused on women’s rights in South Africa.  During her time there, Melissa traveled to remote areas of Southern Africa where the electricity was rare, some towns would steal electricity from poles that would often cause damaging fires.  As Melissa began her research and investigating and the women began to speak openly, she learned that they felt extremely unsafe and acts of rape and murder were common against lesbians.  The culture in South Africa is generally male dominated, the women are expected to be obedient to their husbands and any woman that was lesbian could be “cured” my rape.  Crimes of rape almost always go unreported and no justice is sought for the countless victims.  AIDS and HIV statistics are the highest in South Africa, and a lot of those numbers are a result from these unspeakable rapes taking place daily in a lot of these communities.  Melissa did a fantastic job in her reporting on this under-reported topic as well as providing suggesting as to what specifically can be done to help the women in this area of the world who are not equal and who are fighting daily for basic rights and safety. 

Allison Shelley, Nepal 2012

Allison Shelley was the second speaker in this event, she is an independent photographer or photojournalist, who travels around the world with other journalists, to similarly, discover and report on under-reported issues around the world.  After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Allison stayed in that country for a year and a half to cover Haiti and its culture. She has also traveled to Northern India and areas of Nepal where she discovered several issues.  Eight to twelve year old girls are being forced to get married in Northern India, a lot of them are also becoming pregnant due to rapes and as a result of becoming pregnant, these girls are exiled from their families forced to provide for a child all by themselves.  An interesting topic Shelley shared was on a practice called “Chaupadi” in western Nepal where women are basically sent to live in a shed, often amongst animals, while they are menstruating.

Westchester Community College is the first Community College to participate in the Pulitzer Center fellowship program and Devon Williams is the first student from our Community College to be given the grant.  She will be traveling to Ireland this summer and cover the civil war that has been taking place and the effects its had on the youth culture.

Meet the Pros Event (Women in Crisis)

   

  In the world today there are many issues that are affecting our society. Most notably violence against women which i feel is a very important issue. Prior to Meet the pros event i knew little about this issue but with the enligtenment of Allison Shelley and Melissa Turley i feel like becoming an advocate against violence on women. The story on how women in Nepal go through genital mutilation and also are outcast after their periods was really heart-wrenching. The meet the pros event took place on April 25th 2013 and a mass audience of students and faculty alike attended and also voiced there opinions. Many of my peers are actively viewing different pathways to try and help the issues going on across the globe. I also would like to try and raise a fundraiser this summer to try and eliminate the violent acts, and also educate women on health and give them the resources to succeed.

MEET THE PROS: "We can all do much more"

On April 25, 2013 Allison Shelley and Melissa Turley came to Westchester Community College to talk about their engagement in the 'Women & Children in Crisis' issues. Specifically they spoke about the countries they visited in Eastern India and South Africa. These brave women stepped out of their comfort zone in a way many Americans wouldn't be able to. They felt so strongly about the livelihood of women and children that they sacrificed their basic way of living to visit these countries and get to the bottom of these deep rooted issues. They talked about things like the struggle for women to practice homosexuality and the struggle women in India go through when they are on their menstrual cycles. I say "struggles" only because I cannot find a more harsh word for it. The life of a woman in South Africa is threatened if she is a lesbian; women live in fear for the well-being, they are afraid to walk the streets, afraid to get water because they feel they might get raped. Why would they get raped? Well, because men think it is best for a woman to be raped if she is a lesbian so that she may know how things are "supposed to be." In India, woman are isolated in little animal huts or boxes because they are on their menstrual cycle and men think that they are unclean. They believe this is the way life should be. We as Americans need to understand these deep rooted issues and take control! We have it easy compared to the women in these countries and should never take for granted the kind of life we are able to live. As Don Gregory said, "We can all do much more."

Meet the Pros 4/25/13

The meet the pro's event on 4/25 was not a simple meet n' greet, but an informative look into two professional's work, and a preview of one pulitzer upstart's upcoming story. The main focus is on Melissa Turley and Allison Shelley, and the women issues they focused on in the world. Shelley, a veteran in the field, went to India to report on the issue of Chaupadi, the quarantine of women on their period, and the horrors of the adversity they face. Through vivid images, and first hand interviews, she paints a horrific picture of old world cruelty. 

Melissa Turley however, the last year winner from the pulitzer center, took her reporting skills to South Africa. She told the story of the true suffering in South Africa, and how a new piece of legislation threatens to combine traditional law with national law, which, considering traditional law considers women as objects, would be detrimental to female rights. She shows a portrait of South Africa that is not usually bragged about when talking on the subject of the numerous possibilities in the up and coming future.

The last speaker, Devon Smith, is this years winner from WCC who will be reporting on the schism in Ireland created by two major religions that are splitting the populous. She will b looking into the matter of why random acts of violence are as extreme as they are, and why in this guerilla war, the citizens are being targeted. This day was not an advice panel for up and coming reporters, but rather a real life demonstration of what these reporters go through to popularize some of the most dangerous stories, and how much of them goes into the piece, to give it a life of it's own.

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/

Meet the Pro's, A Westchester Community College Success

        The Pulitzer Center recently promoted the Meet the Pro's Event at Westchester Community College's Classroom Building on March 25, 2013 where students were able to listen to presentations by working journalists in the field who were able to go all over the world and interview many different kinds of people. The general theme was women's rights in both South Africa and Nepal where various cultural practices have scarily real consequences for women across the region.
         One of the speakers, Allison Shelly, went to Nepal where she documented the practice of Chaupati, which is the practice in that particular region of during a woman's menstrual cycle, the woman is forced to live outside the home, in makeshift shelters and animal huts. These structures are tiny living quarters by our terms. This is forced upon the woman because local belief/culture is that a woman is unclean during her cycle and needs to be separated from the rest of society. This belief is so strong that when a woman is going through her period, even her closest friends may shun her, forcing the woman to even take separate back trails through their village. Women are often killed by animals, among other things, while living in these shelters. Allison did a great job of capturing the terrible circumstances these women face while living in these shelters for sometimes weeks. Allison has also done work in Haiti during and after the earthquake disaster.
          Another of the speakers was Melissa Turley who had gone to South Africa to document the many, many terrible rapes that occur there every day. The cultural practice in many post-apartheid regions of South Africa is that homosexuality, especially in women, is not looked at as something natural. Because of the deep track this falsity holds in the local culture, many men feel they are doing almost their duty by raping these women because they believe that by doing so they will "fix" the woman into being straight. The culture doesn't recognize the psychological process that backs up the idea that sexuality, be it homo or hetero, is a natural process. Melissa really got involved in the community and went all over to try and really understand the plight these women face. This belief is so deeply engrained that even the women speak about these rapes in a very matter of fact way. Not all are fine with the status quo and women advocacy groups have begun to spring up across the country.
          Both women did an amazing job, and definitely acomplished what they set out to do. They also gave some good insight into how the students would be able to follow in their footsteps and possible help others around the globe. After the presentation, Prof. Luther gave his opinion as well as to how the students attending could go out into the world and further foward the field of journalism and accomplish great things themselves. Overall, the Meet the Pro's event was a great way for students and teachers alike to admire the hard work of some impressive young, and up and coming journalists.