Website offers Sexual Assault victims a voice
Three years after she was sexually assaulted, 21-year-old Ali Safran still felt she hadn't received justice.
During her senior year of high school, Safran was assaulted by a friend and then went through the whole legal process but was only able to get a restraining order against her attacker.
In an attempt to connect with others who went through similarly frustrating and frightening experiences, she started the Tumblr blog Surviving in Numbers.
Speaking out: Victims of sexual assault have been sharing their stories of abuse on the blog Surviving in Numbers
Personal: The Tumblr blog was started by Mount Holyoke student Ali Safran about three years after she was personally assaulted by a high school friend
Platform: The concept of the blog is that survivors submit pictures of themselves holding up handwritten accounts of their attacks and the aftermath - but conceal their faces while holding them up for anonymity
Doing good: Ms Safran turned the blog into a non-profit this past June
The Mount Holyoke student connected with sexual assault activist groups on her campus where she found survivors willing to share their stories anonymously on the website.
The concept is that survivors write out their stories on a poster and take a picture of themselves holding the paper up, hiding their faces.
'People are so thankful to have a space to share their story that they feel they didn't have before,' Ms Safran told MailOnline.
By the numbers: The stories are mostly numbers-based with many of the victims breaking down how many people they've told, or how many years it's been since the incident
Reactions: Others describe how friends and family reacted to hearing their story, and most of the reactions are not very compassionate
Safe place: Ms Safran says that contributors to the site are glad to have a safe place to share their story that they feel they didn't have before
Ms Safran herself has contributed her own story to the blog twice, first in the early days and then around the fourth-year anniversary of her assault this fall.
The first poster describes how the assault made her not afraid of public speaking because she was forced to share her story with so many people.
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The second describes in more detail the horrifying experience her friend put her through when he crossed the line and assaulted her.
Sharing her story: When the blog first started, Ms Safran contributed her own story about how her assault challenged her fear of public speaking
Four years later: On the four year anniversary of her sexual assault, Ms Safran published another poster about her experience
After launching the website last April, the site quickly garnered attention from other media outlets and more and more people across the U.S. started sending in their stories.
In June, she turned the site into a non-profit and is now looking at a way to expand it into a prevention program for schools.
She wants to continue helping people after they've been assaulted, but would like to focus on educating adolescents so it can be prevented in the first place.
Currently, Ms Safran is double majoring in psychology and politics and hopes to continue to run her non-profit after school.
Helping others: Ms Safran turned the website into a non-profit last June and hopes to continue running it after graduating from college
The root of the problem: Ms Safran hopes to expand the site to a prevention program at schools that will help stop sexual assault from happening in the first place
Brilliant site, not only does it offer victims a voice but it will hopefully open some eyes about the devastating effects of sexual assault.
