On the night of Oct. 25, a small group of students and members of the community gathered outside of Fowler Student Center for an event hosted by the Center for Social Change and Community Involvement (CSCCI) to commemorate International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and to raise money for the Raphael House of Portland, a domestic violence prevention and intervention agency. The Feminist Student Union (FSU) collaborated with the CSCCI by tabling in JR Howard to promote the event and attending it. The event was primarily organized by Tanvi Shukla ’27, the social impact and leadership coordinator for the CSCCI, and Andrea Salyer, the director of the CSCCI.
Shukla, quoted in this article, is also a section editor for The Mossy Log.
The event began with participants creating signs on sheets of cardboard. Colorful paint pens were distributed across several tables. Additionally, orange bandanas and bracelets were put out for students to take. Orange is the color associated with the day, designated by The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, also known as UN Women.
As participants created their signs, Shukla gave a brief introduction to the event.
“We are gathered here on this International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. The main reason we are here is because we want to recognize this issue, the gender-based violence issue, not just as a women’s issue but as a human’s issue. What does that mean? That means that we are united to raise our voices and we need to stand in solidarity together so that we can demand a change and have a change in our society,” Shukla said.
Shukla then discussed the night’s event more specifically.
“In terms of expectations for the night, I would say definitely treat each other with compassion, understanding and try our best to have a peaceful space for each other where we are being supportive,” Shukla said. “Just have fun, feel a lot and be yourself.”
Shukla then read a land acknowledgment honoring the Indigenous people who occupied the lands on which the college now stands.
After Shukla spoke, she invited Natalie Connelly ’26 to address the group. Connelly is the longest standing member of the FSU leadership board.
“Intersectionality is one of the core tenets of FSU, and I wanted to ground our potential feelings of grief, anger and more into intersectional feminist issues facing different communities across the world,” they said. “Especially considering the makeup of Lewis & Clark is majority white women, we are especially implicated and must recognize our capacity to perpetuate harm along with the way we experience harm ourselves.”
Connelly stated the systemic forces that enable and engender violence against women.
“Preventing violence against women requires an end to imperialism and an end to neo-colonialism. It requires a stance against genocide, against apartheid and against occupation,” they said.
Connelly then discussed the feminist issues affecting various international communities today, grounding the significance of the day in the realities of global conflict and its effects on women.
“Almost 70% of the deaths in Gaza are women and children, and more women continue to starve or suffer from the lack of medical care. Palestinian women in the occupied West Bank are assaulted and harassed at checkpoints every single day. Palestinian women are wrongfully detained, disappeared, imprisoned and tortured by the settler colonial Israeli state every day,” they said. “On Oct. 30 this year, over 130 Sudanese women committed mass suicide. It is becoming more and more common to be used as a way to escape assault in massacre (sic) from the Rapid Support Forces militia. 6.7 million women are at risk of gender-based violence there. They, too, are sick and starving.”
Connelly expanded on the multitude of regions where women and marginalized communities continue to be targets of violence.
“Hundreds of thousands of women and girls in Haiti are displaced and in danger and makeshift camps trying to escape gang violence. Millions of women and girls are displaced in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Filipino government has assassinated Indigenous women for defending their land,” they said.
Connelly then discussed the violence against women and gender minorities in the United States.
After their discussion of the global and domestic realities of women targeted by violence, Connelly moved into stating their hopes for the night.
“I know that I’ve just rattled off different kinds of people suffering in all of the worst ways. But experiencing gender-based violence can never take away your humanity, your capacity to love and to be loved, and to care for your community. We must grieve for those we have lost and those we will never know, but must also love and care as much as possible,” they said.
Then, Development Manager of the Raphael House of Portland Quinn Wilson talked about the work her organization does to aid victims of domestic violence in the Portland area.
“A huge part of what it is I’m trying to do in my outreach is name recognition; it is resource recognition,” she said.
Wilson explained that the more name recognition communities have for organizations like Raphael House, the more that community can direct people to their services, which include an emergency shelter, numerous supportive services for victims and their families, preventative education and more.
More information about the Raphael House and their services can be found on their website.
Wilson noted the impact the organization can have on an individual level when aiding those struggling with domestic violence. She shared an anecdote about a healthcare advocate stationed at the OHSU Richmond clinic — doctor’s appointments are one of the only spaces that individuals feel safe to talk to a professional alone, she explained. This advocate had a moving experience when working with a survivor who required immediate aid.
“She sent out a report about how she was in our basement, grabbing a bunch of stuff, toiletries and just grabbed a pack of socks at the last minute,” Wilson said. “She had given this particular survivor a hotel voucher, so went to her hotel (with) the socks and gave her the entire box and when the individual got to the socks, she started crying and she said, ‘I haven’t worn socks for days; I feel human.”
Wilson then contextualized the inter-personal support her organization supports within the context of activism.
“Especially with everything going on, everything that was just talked about and also just like this state of the world, it can feel so overwhelming and so much like ‘How are we going to dismantle these systems of oppression and fight against all of these pieces?’ And a lot of times, like it comes down to finding personhood in someone else, right? It’s about socks, it’s about telling someone you’re there for them, it’s about writing a sign and walking past someone having dinner in a dining hall and just showing personhood,” she said.
Then, the march part of the event began. The group of roughly 15 community members raised their cardboard signs and chanted as they walked in a loop through academic campus and around Fowler Student Center.
“Take back the day, take back the night, we today take back our lives,” chanted demonstrators.
When the group arrived back at Fowler, a brief vigil was held for the victims of gender-based violence which included lighting candles and holding a moment of silence. Once the vigil was over, the event ended with applause for its organizers.
Shukla commented on the experience of the demonstration.
“I’m really happy. I would have expected a bit more people, but it’s okay. I’m really happy with whoever showed up. It’s a lot of power. I love these people,” Shukla said.
Shukla noted that, for her, this day serves as a call to action in spite of our collective grief.
“I think it means, like a lot of remorse, silence and a lot of sadness. And with that sadness also comes the power to act change for it. And I think for me, it means change and there is hope in society, even if there is a lot of sadness existing,” she said.
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