Hundreds of UMW student-athletes participated in the Fear 2 Freedom campaign event in the Anderson Center on Wednesday night.

UMW’s Talley Center for Counseling Services works with Fear 2 Freedom to provide after-care kits for those affected by rape, child abuse, domestic violence and sex-trafficking. Kits prepared by participants during the event will be donated to local hospitals, Safe Harbor and the Rappahannock Council Against Sexual Assault. The event also featured three speakers: UMW President Richard V. Hurley, Psychology Professor Chris Kilmartin and Fear 2 Freedom Founder Rosemary Trible.

Fear 2 Freedom is a global nonprofit dedicated to redeeming and restoring the lives of those wounded by sexual assault. The organization partners with universities, hospitals and communities to raise awareness of sexual abuse and assemble after-care kits for victims.

Trible, who also is the organization’s president, has dedicated her life to helping those wounded by abuse. In her book Fear to Freedom, she shares her own healing journey after being raped at gunpoint in 1975.

The idea of creating an after-care kit rose out of a conversation with Jean Cheek, the coordinator of the Forensic Nurse Examiner Team at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center, who explained the process for treating victims of abuse.

“Women and children who come for treatment and the PERK exam have their clothes kept for evidence,” said Cheek. “Those abused desperately want to take a shower and often victims have to leave in paper scrubs or hospital gowns. This only adds to their shame and trauma.”

The kits are a tangible way to help victims of abuse and support the hospitals. Each kit includes a t-shirt, sweatpants, underwear, Freedom bear and storybook, and essential toiletries.