Senior leadership and service members assigned to Naval Support Facility (NSF) Deveselu, as well as civilian partners, attended the facility's 2nd annual signing of the Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month (SAAPM) proclamation on April 4, at the Housing and Dining Facility.

The motto for this year's SAAPM is "Protecting our people protects our mission." According to Senior Chief Culinary Specialist Jojo Caballero, the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (SAPR) point of contact for NSF Deveselu, the goal of SAAPM is to increase the awareness of preventing and handling the procedures in case a sexual assault arises.

"Our goal here is to increase the awareness and prevent sexual assaults form happening," said Caballero. "If someone becomes victim of a sexual assault our Sailors need to be aware of who and how to report the incident. They need to know how to handle the situation and take of the person that went through the horrible ordeal and they need to be able to give support."

Capt. Charlos Washington, commanding officer of NSF Deveselu signed the proclamation and was the main speaker at the event. During his speech he thanked the Sexual Assault Response and Prevention team for the success they have fostered on base and highlighted the successful results from the Command Managed Equal Opportunity (CMEO) survey.

"One good thing after reviewing the results from the CMEO survey, this is one area [SAPR] that our command is doing is great in," said Washington. "That is a complete testament of how our SAPR squad have been abiding by the rules and making sure we are getting the training out."

He added sexual assault should never happen in the Navy to begin with. It goes against all of our core values and it goes against everything we stand for in unit cohesion and readiness.

Washington said, "The most important part about SAAPM is how we as Sailors and civilians treat each other and that we need to continue the progress we have achieved."

He encouraged the crowd to sustain the progress and maintain their motivation and focus to combat SAPR.

After Washington's speech, Sailors were encouraged to stand together and sign a 5-foot teal ribbon made from wood the command built the prior year to show their support to fight sexual assault in the command and throughout the Navy. Ribbons, water bottles and pamphlets were also passed out at the event.

SAPR victim advocate and the command's Junior Sailor of the Year Master-at-Arms 3rd Class Cassandra Lamoreaux helped pass out novelties to Sailors as they walked by.

"I wanted to be a victim advocate to be able to help the Sailors that are here," said Lamoreaux. "I have always heard and read about Sailors facing such painful things and I wanted to be a person that supports them. I think being victim advocate and being able to help those who suffered from a SAPR incident is very fulfilling."

For more information and resources about Naval Support Facility Deveselu please visit http://cnic.navy.mil/regions/cnreurafswa/installations/nsf_deveselu.html and http://www.facebook.com/NSFDeveselu/.

For more news from Naval Support Facility Deveselu, Romania, visit www.navy.mil/.


For more news from Naval Support Facility Deveselu, Romania, visit www.navy.mil/.