Vrinda and I(Simran) have been friends for the last 9 years, and are founders of Project Blue Ribbon. Even though we do not live in the same city, our bond gets stronger with every passing year. We both are into social activities, but starting an organization was a very big deal for us. We never planned to do it. It was a decision in the heat of the moment. So, it all began when I was sitting with my family and watching the news. Breaking News showed a mother of a 3 months old baby seeking help for her baby’s photo found in a porn site flooded with nasty comments.
Project Blue Ribbon: How it started
I felt so bad and it haunted me for days. One night, I called Vrinda to discuss it. At that very moment, we decided to start an organization to spread awareness of Child Maltreatment. What appalled us more is every 3 out of 4 children suffer from abuse. Shockingly at the hands of parents, caregivers, and family members. Within a few days, we created a team of 5 people and thus founded Project Blue Ribbon.
We have collaborated with both National and International Activists. Even started a platform for survivors to share their stories and empower other people to do the same. We also started our website where people write blogs on child abuse and how we can deal with a child abuse victim. Child Abuse is such a sensitive topic that sometimes people are not ready to speak about it. There are times when parents shush their children because of societal pressures. We believe “if today we support just 1 person to speak out about their own story, it will help 100s of people to stand up and share theirs.”
In the last 3 months, we had conversations with many survivors. What shocked us the most was that the cases of abuse were not done by some unknown person but the family members and close family friends. We and trying our best to normalize the topic. Our goal is to educate children and parents about sex education and its importance in today’s world.
Recently, we also did a survey with our social media followers asking them ‘What will they do if there are no Pedophilia for a day?’ and the answers were astonishing. Around 40% of our followers said there will be a safe environment and children can be happy; 25% said that they will have no fear of leaving their children alone in a park; the rest believed that it will be better for all the children as they do not have to suffer from the pain of molestation at such an early age.
The most common question we face is: Why no men are speaking about their survivor stories? The problem is we live in a society where men are depicted to be powerful. Boys in India are generally taught “Boys don’t cry (Ladke rote nahi)” but what they should be taught is “Crying is not bad(Rona burri baat nahi).” We want to normalize these things and support every individual irrespective of their gender. We want to empower people to speak their voice out so that no child will face any kind of abuse in their life.
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