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ASEZ the Church of God University Student Volunteer Group Holds the “No More Verbal Abuse” Campaign
“Words are more powerful than a sword.”
The United Nations declared October 2 as the International Day of Non-Violence in 2007. On this day, wishing for a peaceful world without violence, ASEZ the Church of God University Student Volunteer Group held the “No More Verbal Abuse” Campaign across the globe.
For ten days from October 2 to 11, this campaign was conducted under the slogan, “Words are more powerful than a sword,” in order to inform the seriousness of verbal violence and lead a correct language culture. According to a school violence survey conducted in 2019 among over one million elementary, middle and high school students in Korea, verbal violence was reported as the most common type of violence. In the same year, the most common type of bullying at work surveyed by the Ministry of Employment and Labor was also verbal abuse. While cyber violence is increasing day by day due to the use of the Internet and smartphones, a survey conducted among 7,000 people also revealed that the most common type of cyber violence was cyber linguistic violence.
During the campaign, ASEZ collected online signatures through its website to cope with verbal abuse together in everyday life, and actively encouraged people to stop verbal abuse, use correct language, and speak encouraging words to others. ASEZ posted 12 types of verbal abuse such as swearing, accusing, and threatening, and introduced daily encouraging words like, “You can do it! I am always here for you.”
Based on this, ASEZ members took the lead in improving the online and offline language culture. They made efforts to create a healthy internet culture by writing good comments on Internet articles and posts. Offline, they comforted their families and acquaintances who were exhausted from COVID-19 by giving their thumbs up at least once a day and saying encouraging words. Around 13,000 people from 81 countries empathized with this campaign and signed to work with ASEZ in eradicating verbal abuse.
“Three times a day, I said thank you to my family. It was awkward at first, but soon my family became more harmonious, and the atmosphere turned positive,” said Sister Kim Yu-bin from Sungshin Women’s University, Korea. “While consistently posting good comments, I’ve become careful not to use the words that will hurt others but to use soft words even in my daily life. Keeping in mind that the words I speak carelessly can be a violence to others, I want to play the role of Band-Aid to comfort wounded hearts with the words of love,” said Sister Koh Na-yeong from Dong-A University, Korea.
The power of words is huge. Even trivial words can instill hope in someone or lead someone to despair. ASEZ will continue to make efforts to create a world free of violence by spreading the words of love and encouragement in 2021, too.
