Giving Compass' Take:

• #MeToo founder Tarana Burke explains why she believes that the debate surrounding the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh demonstrated a need to increase sexual violence education. 

• How can funders help to expand existing education programs>? What is the role of media and journalism in educating the public about sexual violence? 

• Learn how funders can support anti-sexual violence organizations. 

Al Jazeera: Over the past two weeks, the #MeToo conversation in the US has centered on the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, who has been accused of sexual assault. How do you feel about how that conversation has gone?

Burke: I think that the way the conversation has unfolded makes it clear that there's still a lot of education necessary in the country around the realities of surviving sexual violence, and the realities of what it does to a person physically, mentally and emotionally.

The kind of stereotypes around falsehoods and misconceptions that people have around sexual violence are playing out on a public stage with the president tweeting out victim-blaming tweets, or Kavanaugh talking about [how] his supposed virginity shields him from being a sexual assaulter.

Al Jazeera: What impact do these types of misconceptions - being shared so widely in relation to the Kavanaugh accusations - have on sexual assault survivors?

Burke: I think it's clearly a negative impact.

For [Trump] to single out citizens who survive sexual violence and blame them for their own victimization is awful and it's certainly is not helpful for those of us who are trying to encourage survivors and tell them that healing is possible.

We are on one hand saying it's not your fault, and you're not alone, and there's a community that supports you, and you did the right thing by coming forward.

And then [we] have people in leadership who are saying, 'No, she was drunk, or she didn't report, so she's invalidated.'

Read the full interview with Tarana Burke about sexual violence by Jillian Kestler-D'Amours at Al Jazeera.