"Child Sexual Abuse: the Situation in Lebanon" a study done in 2008-2009 by Kafa organization, under the supervision of the Lebanese Ministry of Social Affairs and supported by Save the Children (Sweden) reported that 885'000 kids are victims of psychological abuse, from which 738'000 suffer also from physical abuse and 219'000 from sexual abuse. To understand the extent of the problem, in a country as small as Lebanon, this means that 1 out of 7 children in Lebanon is a victim of abuse. And what’s even more outrageous is that no one dares to talk about it. The taboo of discussing family issues to strangers is very relevant in Lebanese society; add to it the fear of sullying the family reputation or honour, and we have a paralyzing combination that allows the sexual abuse to continue without options in sight.

himaya is an NGO that has taken on the fight to help create awareness and stop the sexual abuse of children. himaya approached us to develop a campaign that would break the taboo of child abuse, raise awareness and encourage victims and witnesses to speak up.

For the silence to be truly broken we needed to create content that had to be newsworthy and create a buzz to have the media talk about an issue that - in any other context - would be ignored and even buried.

At first, a brand campaign was launched with a TVC portraying the risks faced by children in places often assumed as safe. With a number of different stunts, from creating a suspicious character on Facebook informing parents he is now friends with their child to a man camouflaged in the scenery in a park, we managed to give parents a real wake-up call and created great word of mouth. We also launched a second TVC with a series of prints that directly addressed the witnesses who know, but do not dare to speak.

On average, phone calls to report abuse increased by 64% after the campaign. The media embraced himaya’s cause by airing a free campaign for a total value of 1,053,215 USD on TV and Print. himaya’s team was hosted on the top 3 TV talk-shows, reaching an estimate of 941,333 viewers. The campaign also generated a rewarding increase of 25% at the fund-raising Gala Dinner Event.