Photo By Staff Sgt. Casey Hustin | During a scavenger hunt April 21 at Camp Bondsteel, Kosovo, 1st Lt. Sarah C. McCue...... read more read more
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CAMP BONDSTEEL, Kosovo — Units serving Multi-National Battle Group - East conducted a Sexual Harassment Assault Response and Prevention (SHARP) scavenger hunt April 21 at Camp Bondsteel, Kosovo.
Staff Sgt. Emanuel E. Rendon, a SHARP Victim Advocate (VA) with the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, California National Guard, innovatively helped to eliminate the ‘SHA’ in SHARP with a scavenger hunt designed to show Soldiers the reporting and care options for victims of harassment and assault.
“The event stemmed from the idea of “The Amazing Race,”” said Rendon, referring to a popular reality television show. “Instead of making random stops I wanted to make the stops relevant to the SHARP program; these stops the Soldiers are going to are all related to a reporting option.”
Participating teams traveled, through scavenger hunt clues, along a simulated victim’s experience. Clues led the teams to subject-matter experts, including the Sexual Assault Medical Forensic Examiner, the Military Police, Behavioral Health and the chaplain. Soldiers learned each SHARP advocate’s role in the reporting process, then asked and answered questions about the reporting and care process.
First Lt. Sarah C. McCue, a Sexual Assault Medical Forensic Examiner (SAMFE), and executive officer for the 28th Combat Support Hospital, 44th Medical Brigade, described to each team what a Sexual Assault Forensic Exam (SAFE) kit included and how she proceeds to use one with a victim’s direction.
A SAMFE is a specially trained, nurse or doctor who has learned how to appropriately collect possible or potential DNA, to be used as evidence, when or if a case goes to trial, said McCue.
“I’ve been in the Army for 10 years, and until I became a nurse, I didn’t know what a SAMFE was,” said McCue. “Until something happens and you have to come see one of us, you really don’t know what we do.”
This training hits home a lot harder than a PowerPoint presentation, when you have to take the steps a victim would have to take, said McCue.
Soldiers learned something more during this unique training exercise.
“It was definitely a good twist,” said Pfc. Austin McDaniel, a military policeman with the 977th Military Police Company, 97th Military Police Battalion, 89th MP Brigade. “It was a lot better than sitting in a brief the whole time. When we went to the chaplain, we learned that the report you can file with them is neither restricted nor unrestricted, because he has complete, or total confidentiality.”
The goal of the military is to eliminate the ‘SHA’ in the SHARP program and events like this were designed with that goal in mind.
“I’m trying to make sure these service members know where the people are located, where the offices are located and get a face-to-face with the subject-matter expert,” said Rendon. “So that next time they see them walking around, in the event that something does happen, they know exactly who to go to for the help that they need. Not just that, but to tell their buddies. You never have to tell the service members where the dining facility is but these other very important locations nobody looks for, that’s why I want to put a spotlight on every single one of them.”
The event supports Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month (SAAPM), observed during the month of April since 2005, to reaffirm the Army’s commitment to eliminate sexual assault and harassment in the ranks and within communities of the force.
| Date Taken: | 04.24.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 04.25.2018 03:30 |
| Story ID: | 274235 |
| Location: | CAMP BONDSTEEL, ZZ |
| Web Views: | 432 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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