As we passed the first anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti, we ask you to stop and think about the horror and devastation that faced the people of this island nation.

Their walls crashed down around them. Individuals’ loved ones perished amongst the rubble. Children were separated from parents — some were sent to the US before they knew their parents were still alive. All of what many of them had known and trusted shifted dramatically and permanently.

A magnitude seven earthquake struck Haiti on Jan. 12, 2010. More than a year later, workers are still finding bodies in the rubble. Less than 5 percent of the debris has been cleared. The remaining rubble could be put in enough dump trucks parked bumper-to-bumper to reach halfway around the world, according to one report.

Why should we care? We should care because 316,000 people died from this devastating natural disaster. Consider your fellow ISU students dead — not only several devastating deaths like we saw last year, but every one of your peers. Now imagine this happening 10 times over again. We should care because the people that did survive this earthquake are suffering, especially women.

Historically, women are impacted by disaster situations to a disproportionate extent — this is because women in most countries are already at a disadvantage. As in most countries, women in Haiti are poorer than men. Having no safety net after a disaster such as this further exposes many to violence, homelessness and sexual assault.

Horror and devastation is not new to many of the women of Haiti. Sexual assault was prevalent in Haiti prior to the earthquake.

In times of upheaval, rape was often used as a political weapon. As the Chief of Staff of the Ministry for Women said, “… war taught a country to rape. Before there was rape of course, but it was not a common practice. Now when a man wants to rape, he rapes. It was used as weapon of war — the military institutionalized it and now when a robber gets into your house, he rapes you.” Rape was not even considered a criminal offense until 2005. With limited resources for women’s health in general, the women of Haiti had very little access to rape education or treatment for physical, psychological and emotional impact of such violent crimes.

After a natural disaster as devastating as this, conditions get worse. Women lose access. They lose access to essential reproductive health care services — if they had any to begin with. If their husbands had died in the earthquake, a woman could be denied access to property rights to try to rebuild her home, forcing many women into tent camps.

Of the people who did survive, an estimated one million remain in tent camps, unable to rebuild over the rubble. These tent camps have left many people vulnerable, especially women. With no lighting or effective security, the tent camps often become dangerous places. Aid workers say sexual assaults are a daily encounter; however, most women do not report in avoidance of the attached social stigma out of fear of reprisals and feelings of shame.

In the U.S., sexual assault primarily occurs among acquaintances: family members, partners, spouses and neighbors. In 77 percent of reported cases in the U.S., the attacker is not a stranger. In Haiti, half of the rapes are committed by strangers, often times using weapons and violent force. These are our worst nightmares — reports include incidences of gun barrels and knives being shoved up women’s vaginas in tent camp communal areas. The women of Haiti have the worst of both worlds: They must be aware of people and situations they are familiar with as women in America are, but they must also fear people and situations they do not know.

The women living in tent camps have no way to protect themselves. Many times, the officers chosen to protect the people are the people doing the most heinous crimes: Officials have been known to ask for sexual favors in return for protection. The dangers these women face are not being stopped. To make matters worse, the fabric walls of women’s makeshift homes in the tent camps don’t offer protection in any form; there is nowhere for them to go.

These women survivors of both natural disasters and personal violation have had their literal as well as figurative walls torn down. They were not only rendered homeless, but now live in fear of sexual assault on a regular basis as they huddle in their tarp-walled homes. We are a part of a global sisterhood, and atrocities like this cannot be overlooked. I urge each of you to educate yourselves — just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.