Actor Famke Janssen and Nobel Prize winner Nadia Murad front Free a Girl’s #voiceforjustice campaign supporting child survivors of sexual exploitation.
The #voiceforjustice initiative has a bold aim: to collect hundreds of thousands of voices of women from all over the world. The donated testimonies become a huge audio file - a first-of-its-kind aural petitioning tool. Instead of collecting signatures, Free a Girl will create a mass petition you can listen to, signified by every supporter’s voice. This will be used to lobby governments in Asia and presented to key authorities across the world at the end of the campaign, including to the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs in Nepal, the high commissioner for Human Rights at the UN (Michelle Bachelot) and other Human Rights lawyers and advocates, such as Amal Clooney and Malala Yousafzai.
Every year 2 million children are sexually exploited worldwide. But less than 1% of all perpetrators are convicted.
One of the students in Nepal is Renuka, whose tragic story is sadly common.
“My name is Renuka Sherpa. When I was 11 years old, I was raped by an old man. I cried a lot and it was painful, even walking hurt. Then I was raped by a neighbour, and became a victim of sexual violence all over again. I ended up in a dance bar, where I was forced to satisfy the customers’ sexual desires. After two years I was rescued.
“At last I was safe. But I still felt deeply ashamed. Then I heard that child survivors in India can study at the School for Justice and that Free a Girl would be starting a school in Nepal as well. I want to become a public prosecutor or a judge, so that I can fight sexual exploitation of children and help other survivors to get their perpetrators behind bars.”
Millions of children are sexually exploited every year in India and Nepal, and now the COVID-19 pandemic is making things worse. Desperation for alternative sources of income is putting children at even greater risk. Help stop the sexual exploitation of children. In this time of need, support Free a Girl.
Every year over 12,000 Nepali underaged girls are trafficked to India for sexual exploitation – hidden among passengers on buses like those passing through Tonket. Here, previous survivors search for possible new victims, torn from families who sometimes spend years looking for their daughters, to prevent the horrors they experienced from happening again. With years of experience, they intercept more than a quarter. But many still don’t dare report the crime.
Listen to the voices of Nadia Murad, Famke Janssen and all other campaign ambassadors here as they support the initiative.
The donated testimonies will be put together into a huge audio file, which will become a first-of-its-kind aural petitioning tool. Instead of collecting signatures, this is a mass petition you can listen to from women all over the world signified by every supporter’s voice. This will be used to lobby governmental bodies in Asia, and presented to key authorities across the world at the end of the campaign, including to the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs in Nepal, to the high commissioner for Human Rights at the UN (Michelle Bachelot) and other Human Rights lawyers and advocates, such as Amal Clooney and Malala Yousafzai.
The complete audio file containing all the donated voices will also be shared with participants of the initiative and presented to Renuka and other survivors to show how many women have joined the cause – encouraging them to go to the police and file a lawsuit, knowing they are supported by women around the world.
Donate your voice: voiceforjustice.freeagirl.com
Client: Free a Girl
Agency: The Humblebrag
Press coverage:
Adformatie
Coverage book
Awards:
The Best Social Awards - Best International Campaign
ADCN - Bronze Lamp in Media