Change-Makers: #CrushingTheHush

When thinking about what to do for their social action project as part of Keep Doing good this year, Rhea and her team started thinking about the people they loved best. And that’s why they decided to help raise awareness, and funds, for Quetzal - a charity that helps women break free from the trauma of childhood sexual abuse. 

Rhea explains, “We felt it was really important [to work with Quetzal] because lockdown meant that more and more women felt trapped, so now more than ever it was important for them to know about the charity. In addition, we thought about how we would feel if the women in our lives were affected similarly and couldn’t find support.”

Quetzal supports women living in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland through the delivery of counselling sessions, outreach programmes, raising awareness and training so that counsellors and partners can support women further. They rely on fundraising to provide these services, with every £10 donation going towards victims of childhood sexual abuse hearing about their services, every £20 donation delivering free one-to-one counselling session and every £50 allowing them to deliver free group sessions. 

Rhea and the team first decided to do an awareness campaign. They created posters and leaflets to display in their community and hand out to local businesses. “We included QR codes to provide people with easy access to both the donation page along with Quetzal’s website” said Rhea. 

Next, the team moved online, and created a social campaign - #crushthehush. They took over Quetzal’s Instagram page and posted some photos and videos to show what Quetzal does and how important they are to women in the community. They also came up with a simple hook - a video of them crushing a fizzy drink can, with the crush symbolising the crushing of silence, and the invitation to speak up about past experiences. By linking their campaign to a donation page, support started to come in. 

“We hadn’t raised any money by the time we went home on the first day and it was really disheartening” said Rhea, “but, we all worked together after we went home and managed to raise around £200 by the next morning!”

And it didn’t stop there. The team went on to raise an amazing £428 for Quetzal. Which will help so many women in their community get the support they need. As Rhea says, “It will allow more women in vulnerable positions and women that are suffering in silence to get the help they deserve and move on with their lives after the trauma.” 

WANT TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE WHERE YOU ARE?

Want to carry out some social action in your community but aren’t sure where to start? Why not check out a Local Action Group!

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