Girls are finding their voices – and challenging others to be different, says Cristiane Pereira, our Pink House coordinator in Medina.
___
Empower and embolden our girls so that they know their rights and can be light in their communities, their families, and wherever they might go: That is what we fight to do every day at the Pink Houses.
It takes a lot of perseverance and insistence, but today our girls are strong, confident and vocal. People can see the change that has happened in them, and as a consequence they provoke change in others, in the way people around them think and behave.
The transformation in the girls’ lives is breaking the culture and cycle of exploitation that has been part of life here in Medina for as long as anyone can remember. What is happening inside the Pink House is reverberating all around, changing the lives and stories of many others.
The girls have gone from being victims, powerless and voiceless, to protagonists, authors of their own stories, and change makers.
Pink House march against abuse in Medina
Over the past year we have increased our direct actions outside the Pink House because the girls themselves want to shine a light into the darkness and speak out for girls in their community. That’s why every time we have an opportunity to take part in an event or put on a performance, the girls are always front and centre.
One of those events this year was the annual Independence Day parade, when the girls decided they wanted to tell people to speak out when they knew a child was being abused. Afterwards we heard various reports about how the community had been impacted by seeing those girls holding signs, black tape over their mouths, telling people to stop being silent and complicit.
On the day of the march, a new girl came along asking if she could take part. She had been invited by one of the regular Pink House girls who was in the same class as her at school. The girl was living in the town’s children’s shelter because she had been abused by her father.
After we had set off the girl asked if she could hold up the banner at the front. It was a way of her saying that she didn’t want that life, that she didn’t accept the silence she had suffered. It was so brave of her. She understood the importance of what she was doing and the impact it would have on those who saw it.
That’s the beautiful thing about what we are seeing. The girls are not only transmitting an important message to their community, they are overcoming their own traumas and difficulties too, and discovering a strength inside of them some never knew they had.
And because it is they who are doing it, the impact on those who see it is so much greater. They are talking about things they have seen, felt and gone through. They are showing their communities that they can be who they want to be. And, of course, they are showing other girls that they don’t need to suffer in silence.
Our work takes time, one action at a time. But we are seeing a difference in our town, mindsets and attitudes are being changed. And most of all, the girls are learning they have a voice, and that will transform the rest of their lives.
Girls outside the Pink House in Medina
Subscribe
To our newsletter