Last spring our InterVarsity chapter was able to take part in a campus-wide event and outreach at SIUE (Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville). It was called Project Dirty Laundry. Maybe you’re thinking that we had students bring us their dirty laundry and we washed it for free. Well, that’s not exactly how it went. We were trying to clean up the dirty laundry of society.

Project Dirty Laundry (PDL) was a week devoted to raising awareness about social injustice issues and taking action against them. Different organizations were asked to take on any issue that they felt really needed to be discussed. InterVarsity participated in this event along with other campus groups to educate and mobilize the campus about various national and global injustices.

Our chapter wanted to be involved and we chose to talk about child abuse. We did a lot of research to find out as much as we could on the issue. We researched warning signs, symptoms, and some of the aftereffects of child abuse. We also researched how to prevent child abuse and what we as students could do in the fight against child abuse. All of this information was put on a flyer to hand out during the week of PDL.

During the week of PDL there were tables set up on the Quad during the day with all of the flyers and information that groups had gotten together on their particular issue. We also painted statistics about the issues on T-shirts, which we hung on clothelines around the Quad for people to read as they walked by. During the evenings there were talks and panel discussions related to the issues going on that people could attend if they wanted to find out more about a particular issue.

Our talk was the first one of the week. One of our staff workers volunteered to speak about child abuse because he was well-informed on the issue. He presented facts and statistics, mixing in some real life stories that broke our hearts. More importantly he talked about how God’s love can bring healing and restoration to a life that has been broken by abuse. He was able to present the gospel openly to everyone that happened to be listening or passing through the University Center.

PDL gave our chapter an opportunity to stand up against injustice in front of the entire campus. It also gave us the opportunity to work with other organizations on campus and build relationships with people who are passionate about social justice issues. It was an amazing experience to stand up for things that break God’s heart with other students on our campus.

—Rachael Caballero is a junior majoring in special education at SIUE. She is the president of the InterVarsity chapter and offered to cook a complete turkey dinner for the chapter’s Christmas party last year.