Blue Umbrella Day was celebrated on April 16th 2021. We would like to share and celebrate the amazing initiatives and efforts by Family for Every Child (Family) members across the globe to bring much-needed attention to how to better care for boys and protect them from sexual violence.
Official activities for Blue Umbrella Day spanned 10 countries, and engaged thousands of people including children, practitioners, authorities and partner organisations. Learn more about how the day was marked below.
Getting vocal in India
Butterflies, an organisation based in Delhi, launched the campaign in seven states and territories in collaboration with a number of members from the National Alliance of Grassroots NGOs. They organised street rallies, a flash mob dance, sessions with children, interaction with local media and distribution of local print and electronic media across major cities. They also engaged regional media and ran a mass social media campaign, reaching 70 thousand users on Facebook and Instagram. A Bollywood song’s lyrics was also rewritten by children to address the issue, listen to it below.
Another Family member organisation, Praajak helped further promote the campaign in India, drawing up a campaign plan for the Murshidabad districtand posting extensively on social media.. They also ran a poster competition fory children and young people.
Stakeholder engagement from the Philippines to Paraguay
CPTCSA (Philippines) ran stakeholder meetings with government and NGOs in preparation for their comprehensive campaign, which reached thousands of practitioners, included outreach to children and wider community engagement through a comprehensive media campaign. As part of this, CPTCSA conducted an 18-strong lecture series, and supported activities for children such as storytelling, essay writing, and photography workshops.
Meanwhile in Paraguay, Enfoque Niñez introduced the campaign to 29 Paraguayan child rights organisations. They also hosted a workshop for professionals on social norms and stereotypes around gender, which resulted in the creation of a working group. Their campaign featured on national television, government media and in the written press, and ran an online campaign for further reach.
Going mainstream in Guyana
In Guyana, ChildLink’s launch webinar included panelists from the Ministry of
Human Services and Social Protection, watch it here. The launch was also was covered in an article by Kaieteur news which has an annual online readership of 126, 806 in addition to a larger print readership.
They also hosted two panel discussions: “Beliefs that keep male CSA survivors from coming forward”; and “Families' role in increasing boy’s protection”, which were live streamed through the National Communications Network’s Facebook page, and on TV Channel 11.
Using social media to confront stereotypes
The COVID-19 pandemic meant some activities were pushed online, with social media campaigns active in a number of countries. These campaigns raised important awareness on some of the issues associated with sexual violence affecting boys, such as the need to fight harmful stereotypes and change attitudes. In addition to the above, a number of organisations ran social media campaigns including ChildLink (Guyana), JUCONI (Mexico), FISD (Sri Lanka), First Step Cambodia, ACD (Bangladesh), Voice of Children (Nepal) and more! Thanks to all organisations who shared the campaign across their channels.
But that’s not all
Other activities of note include:
- In Sri Lanka, FISD ran school workshops on gender stereotypes;
- In Nepal, Voice of Children used the campaign to run activities for children in their centre. They also used Blue Umbrella Day as an advocacy opportunity to make a TV appearance and talk about sexual violence affecting boys;
- In Guatemala, CONACMI handed out materials in the street, hosted webinars on detecting child abuse, and created a dedicated web page with resources;
- In the UK, the campaign was featured on the BBC World Service and in the Metro newspaper, as well as several smaller sector publications.
Important connections and possible collaborations are also emerging from the campaign. We look forward to sharing more updates and information on how participating organisations are keeping the momentum of the campaign going.