News Release
October 2006
Bethlehem, Pa., October 9, 2006—Moravian College will hold a domestic violence
awareness and education program called "Silent Witness Story," a series of 12 monologues
by students, holding life-size red silhouette figures, who each tell the story of domestic
violence behind the murdered victims. The program, part of Domestic Violence Awareness
Month activities at Moravian, will be held on Wednesday, October 11 at 7:00 p.m. in Prosser
Auditorium, Haupert Union Building (HUB). The program is open to the public and admission
is free of charge.
Silent Witness is a national initiative begun in 1990 in reaction to the growing number
of women killed by their husbands, boyfriends, partners or acquaintances. Upset by the
growing number of deaths, a group of women in Minnesota decided to take action by creating
life-sized wooden figures, each bearing the name of a woman whose life ended violently
and each standing as a silent witness so that victim would not be forgotten. They started
with 26 figures and today there are an estimated 3,500 witnesses across 50 states and
27 countries.
The national program
promotes projects that are based on research and are results orientated such as treatment
programs and other special programs geared toward individuals or groups. The program
also develops strategies for collecting data on domestic violence. The goal of "Silent
Witness" is to have zero deaths by the year 2010.
Moravian College’s "Silent Witness" program will be sponsored through
the Special Interest House on Domestic Violence (A group of seven Moravian College
female students against domestic violence who are housed
together on-campus), the Office of Student Life, Women’s Studies Program, Peer
Educators, and the Psychology Club. Stacey Zaremba, professor psychology, is the
advisor to the Student Athletes against Domestic Violence.
For information, call 610 861-1491. Other domestic violence awareness
activities at Moravian include a “Fact a Day” in the HUB, purple bracelets
and ribbon campaign, and a panel discussion with leading experts on domestic violence
that will be held at Moravian College on October 25 (details to follow).
