In this podcast, Alan talks with Antonia Sobocki who is heading the LOUDfence campaign in the UK.
This campaign has had great success in raising awareness of child abuse around the world but somehow missed the UK which Antonia aims to rectify. She explains how it started in Australia and how she is now successfully spreading the campaign throughout the country.
The campaign ties ribbons and messages in public places to raise awareness of child abuse and Antonia tells how a survivor was moved to tears when seeing the tag with her name and age when she was abused that Antonia had tied onto railings for her.
We thought listeners might be interested to hear about the project and may also wish to have their abuse acknowledged in the same way.
We hear how Antonia was motivated to take positive action having experienced in her church disengagement with victims and survivors of childhood sexual abuse in the face of serious allegations, and successful prosecutions of abusers. She talks of her experience in how culture encourages rejection of survivors, but how this might be changing in light of campaigns such as LOUDfence, and how church leaders see the need for engagement
You can see some of the ribbons that Antonia has made on twitter (@ASobocki) and also a bit more about the project here https://survivorsvoices.org/activism/loudfence/.
