'Bandana Project' at LCC aims to raise awareness of sexual violence
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Raising awareness about sexual violence is the goal of the "Bandana Project" at 6 p.m. Thursday (April 7) at Purdue University's Latino Cultural Center.
Co-sponsored by the LCC and Multicultural Efforts to End Sexual Assault, the event is free and open to the public.
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. The "Bandana Project" is a nationwide effort founded in 2007 by Esperanza Project, the legal initiative for immigrant women of the Southern Poverty Law Center, to heighten awareness about sexual harassment and sexual assault against immigrant and farmworker women.
Participants in the project decorate and draw on bandanas. The Southern Poverty Law Center says that farmworker women are forced to use their clothes, including bandanas, to cover their bodies while they are working in an attempt to ward off unwanted sexual attention. The bandanas will be decorated to honor the women who have been assaulted and have named their attackers, the center says.
Materials will be provided, and the bandanas will be on display throughout April at the Latino Cultural Center, 600 Russell St.
Refreshments will be provided at the event.
Writer: Greg McClure, 765-496-9711, gmcclure@purdue.edu
Sources: Maricela Alvarado, Latino Cultural Center director, 765-494-2530, alvaradm@purdue.edu
Omar Diaz, Latino Cultural Center program coordinator, 765-494-2530, odiaz@purdue.edu