Tunnel of Oppression

Another one of the service projects I am involved in was Tunnel of Oppression. It was my first year and I was not familiar with Tunnel of Oppression as I had been with Dance Marathon. It was a whole new concept to me. My college does the tunnel every two years and other colleges and universities do and create the tunnel every year. Tunnel of Oppression is spreading throughout colleges and universities and is becoming more common.

What is Tunnel of Oppression? Tunnel of Oppression is a tunnel that raises awareness of taboo issues in society such as depression, different types of abuses, anxiety, food disorders, human trafficking, racial issues, religious issues, LGBTQ, and many other issues that fall into those categories. The tunnel is made up of piping and sheets with posters with images and words written on them. The tunnel contains powerful messages that are supposed to strike anyone that walks through it.

I remember the head of the Service Leader asking anyone if they wanted to be a team lead. I raised my hand and I became one of the leaders of the construction committee. This was the first service project that I helped take charge and made sure my part for it was done. I had to help create the posters, design the tunnel, prepare my group and do research on the project.

This service project took a lot of effort but it was well worth it when it was done. The tunnel had reached out and made a difference to many on campus. It was an approach to get people to understand that abuse and bullying is never okay. Everyone has their own differences and we need to see that more in society.

Below are some of the images from the construction of the tunnel that had been taken when we were putting it together.

Above are images from the tunnel that we placed in there. Throughout the tunnel, there are skits in the corner to act out some of the skits. One of the skits I became involved in and acted like an abused child while the alcoholic parent had abused me. After the tunnel, it was amazing to see how many people had different outlooks on some of the topics and how many people were shocked in the statistics and horrors of some of the numbers mentioned. After the tunnel, we had a social worker at the end to talk about what the tunnel is and how it effected everyone. Our objective of the tunnel is to motivate people and make them understand that everyone is different. We try to help others understand that there are underlying issues that occur everyday that keep getting ignored and these issues need to be addressed. 

Below is a video of what the tunnel is like:

Tunnel of Oppression