Originally published on change.org on June 27, 2016 By Maria Ruiz
Hello friends and supporters —
Before anything else, I would like to thank each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart for your support thus far. What we have accomplished in the face of this and the many travesties rape victims face daily has been huge.
We need your help to continue to pressure California assembly members to begin impeachment hearings. Will you help us organize a petition delivery and protest in Sacramento? Click here to donate: http://chn.ge/28RUhF1
There are also a great many of you who have asked me what I am doing to help other rape victims. Whatever money is raised above what is needed for the protest will be donated to two wonderful organizations.
The first is Know Your IX, a survivor and youth-led organization that empowers students to end sexual and dating violence in schools. They educate college and high school students about their legal rights to a safe education, free from sexual or gender-based violence. They train, organize, and support student-survivor activists in challenging their educational institutions to address violence and discrimination, while advocating policy changes on a campus, state, and federal level to ensure meaningful systemic action to end sexual and gender based violence.
The other portion of any sum collected will go to End The Backlog. The rape kit backlog is one of the most truly horrible aspects of our criminal justice system. Rape kits cost, on average, from $1000-$1500 to process. For years, crime labs have fought with limited capacity and tight state and local law-enforcement budgets, causing untested kits to pile up across the country. These kits are only tested if requested by police when there is a viable suspect and the case is deemed prosecutable. Many rapists are serial offenders, which means that in many cases, justice may just be sitting on shelves with a price tag of $1000. End The Backlog has been fighting for years to change this.
If you feel either of these two wonderful not for profits are worth helping, please donate if you can: http://chn.ge/28RUhF1.
If you cannot, do not be discouraged, there are still ways to help — please visit their websites for more information on how to donate your time!
Thank you again for all your tireless efforts —
Maria A. Ruiz
To contact me directly for questions concerns and comments feel free to contact me via
Twitter @marialametida
Email marialametida@gmail.com
For press inquiries please contact
LadysoalPR@gmail.com
