Meet the Pros: Uncovering the Story

          On April 25th, 2013, Westchester Community College held its 15th annual "Meet the Pros" event where two esteemed reporters from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting offered the privilege to interview, question and learn about their "first-hand experience" on the gender gap in South Africa, Chaupadi and Nepali. Seeing the gap through the photography of Allison Shelley, and hearing of the crime and isolation against women from Melissa Turley paints a vivid image of the injustices that people face on a daily basis in the areas they have visited.

          Melissa Turley, a Fellowship Reporter from The George Washington University, is an accomplished part of her school community, as well as a proud part of many other teams and projects. As an editor of The GW Hatchet, a student-run campus newspaper, as well as a director for her documentary "Microbreweries, Maximum Sustainability," taking on a journey to report the gender gap in South Africa seemed to be a great idea for someone ready to make a difference and bring things to the public's attention.
"If a woman brings a case to court she cannot set foot in the courthouse. A man must represent her."
The opening line in her article is a statement that explains what women go through to live in South Africa. Not only did she make life-long relationships with these people, she learned things that would shock Americans to even fathom an idea, but to Africa, is a normal everyday thing to everyone. Women are being mistreated but not just discrimination, but crimes such as rape and murder are common occurrences done JUST BECAUSE the women are "different."
          Melissa also met organizations working for the greater good of women, such as the Rural Women's Movement (RWM). These people are all working to help equalize women and stop the injustices, and even though before this she might not have known about the injustices, many people can thank her for putting the word out there about the inequality going on in South Africa.

          Allison Shelley is a Fellowship Reporter and photographer, who brings her stories to life by helping people experience the story not just with their ears, but their eyes and heart. As a former photographer for the Washington Times, she decided to take her experience to Haiti, and the sovereign state of Nepal, where women are not only being mistreated, but being seen as "dirty" and "unclean" because of something that they cannot help. Women are forced to stay in exile during their menstrual cycle, which is called "chaupadi." Such a thing is inexcusable in America but in Nepal is widely accepted. In certain cases, it was seen as necessary. In one of the cases she talked about, a man decided to let his daughter in the house and she was struck with paralysis, but as soon as he sent her back into exile, she recovered fully.
          While there may, or may not be a force watching over the people, making sure ritual behavior is followed, their definitely is a force that is noticing this. That force was Allison. She endured the non-safe conditions of Haiti and Nepal, and traveled for many hours per day to keep up with these families, and learn these customs. Through her pictures, she showed and almost had people feeling the experience, and one could not imagine a dry eye or cement heart when listening to the issues of these neglected, and exiled women.

          Both of these reporters opened the eyes and hearts of Americans, and through the Pulitzer Center, hopefully made a difference to these people. To follow along and learn more about what they've seen, please visit the links below courtesy of the Pulitzer Center:

http://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/south-africa-gender-inequality-womens-rights-poverty-justice-democracy

http://pulitzercenter.org/projects/nepal-cultural-practice-women-childbirth-maternal-mortality-chaupadi