Embroidered with Pain

CONTEXT

As of the fall of 2022, international human rights organizations have reported numerous cases of sexual violence committed by the Russian military against Ukrainians. The exact number is unknown, as victims remain silent due to severe psychological trauma and fear of public condemnation. But they need to talk - with specialists - to get proper medical and psychological help and begin to heal.  

And with law enforcement officials to give testimony that will help find and punish the criminals.
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So we decided to start by raising the topic at the level of society and thus letting the victims know: we know about your pain, we are ready to hear, you are not alone.
At first, together with the Ukrainian-Swiss project Mental Health for Ukraine, we created “Dali Ye” platform, where we put together a step-by-step plan for healing after sexual violence during the war. But this was only the beginning.

STRATEGY

To start talking to the victims carefully and non-traumatically, we found an alternative language - figurative but understandable to all Ukrainians. The language of traditional embroidered cloths, which became the language of our project.
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We collected five stories - with fictional characters, but based on real events heard from psychologists. Then we turned the collected stories into ornaments, using traditional Ukrainian elements and new ones that we created in collaboration with an artist and an ethnographer to better convey the realities of wartime. Finally, we invited craftswomen to embroider visual stories on the cloths.
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Each cloth tells the story of a woman who was sexually abused during the war but found the strength to seek help. We took embroidery techniques from different parts of the country to show that this tragedy is common to all of us.

PRESENTATION

We organized a presentation of the project at one of Kyiv's central metro stations. Later, the cloths appeared at the central stations of large cities close to the military operations.

QR codes at the stands led to the Embroidered with pain, website, where you can read the texts of the stories and learn the meaning of the ornament elements. The site also provides access to the information platform «Dali Ye» and information on how to get help.

PR-CAMPAIGN

We launched a large-scale digital and PR campaign.
It lasted less than two months, but it had a great response: we received 83 free media outlets and a total of 6 million contacts with the audience.

COOPERATION WITH OPINION LEADERS

We did a special project with the popular YouTube show Ebaut, which discusses hot topics.

RESULTS

Total coverage

6 000 000

contacts

Website

30 000

users from 75 countries

Media coverage

media outlets
with zero budget

3 000 000

views

Awards

bronze awards from Kyiv International Advertising Festival KIAF KIAF in 4 categories:: integrated campaigns, PR campaigns, digital and mobile, design.