The Campaign
The Break the Silence Campaign derived out of the need to raise awareness in communities where workshops and interventions were being conducted during the research phase of the project. Participants and members of the communities requested this.
The Break the Silence campaign aims to:
– increase public awareness about issues related to CSA/incest and implications for HIV;
– increase public awareness about existing resources for preventing and responding to CSA/incest and HIV; and
– influence leaders to increase their commitment to gender sensitive, evidence and human rights based polices and interventions that prevent and address CSA/incest and HIV.
The Blue Teddy Campaign Symbol
The creation of an ethnic and gender sensitive symbol that brands the Break the Silence: end child sexual abuse campaign has been a key achievement of the project. The symbol — a blue teddy bear with a plaster on its heart — was designed specifically to raise awareness of CSA/incest and the implications for HIV/AIDS. The Project team hopes that this symbol will become accepted and continually associated with CSA/incest and implications for HIV awareness not only in Trinidad and Tobago, but also regionally and globally. The development of the symbol, its unrestricted use for these specific issues and and the impact we hope it will make, has been inspired by the HIV/AIDS red ribbon campaign developed by an artists coalition in New York in the 1990's.
Calls to Action
The Campaign consists of a number of Calls to Action that came out of the activities and actions of individuals and groups. These Calls to Action proved to be popular, affordable and achievable.
