An incredible non-profit making organisation is helping bring justice for abused children in South Africa. Entitled ‘The Pair Bear Project’, the organisation combats one of society’s greatest evils, sexual abuse of children, by giving them tools to share their stories and get the justice they deserve.
The project focuses on community engagement projects and skills development initiatives in the sewing and tailoring sector and aims to help people from the Southern country’s communities build small businesses and help the community whilst doing so.
As well, the NPO pursues minor projects with multiple benefits, such as the Show and Tell dolls, to help the youth in communities to speak out on sexual abuse.
The Pair Bear Project Director Christi Jackson, who bemoaned the frequent assaulting of children by grooming methods -when a child is sexually abused from a young age and grows up thinking that this is normal behaviour – said the Show and Tell dolls assist survivors in explaining what has happened to them in a non-threatening way.
“Many sexual assault victims are too young to comprehend what has happened to them and cannot describe the event using words and language that adults understand. Our dolls help young survivors explain what has happened to them in a non-threatening way. Child witnesses often testify using age-appropriate terms for sexual conduct. With anatomically correct dolls, it enables a witness to demonstrate what sexual and physical abuse they witnessed,” she said.
Jackson said that their dolls have been created to be anatomically correct, making the identification of genital organs easy for younger survivors. She underscored that it was “sad” that society needs such a product to help bring justice.
“..however, unfortunately, it is an essential one. This product could help child psychologists, Play Therapists, rape and Gender-Based Violence (GBV) NPOs, and social workers communicate more effectively with young survivors of sexual assault. After being commissioned to make the dolls, we realised no such product exists in South Africa. We are hoping that we can fill this gap with a product that can truly help the young victims. Should we receive funding for our project, we can donate these dolls to NPO’s that deal with GBV, as well as rape, and social care workers in poorer communities,” said the director.
The dolls are hand-crafted and produced by local seamstresses. They come fully clothed with panties/underpants, bras, decorative clothing and shoes, and their faces are hand-painted. Every doll is unique and can be purchased with extra clothing and in families. The family consists of a boy and girl, mom and dad, and granny and grandpa.
Although Pair Bear Project is still in its start-up phase, they employ local seamstresses and tailors throughout South Africa.
Jackson’s initiation is gaining moment in South Africa just at the time the world observes April as Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM).
SAAM is an annual campaign that raises awareness about sexual violence worldwide and educates communities on preventing it. Sexual assault is an umbrella term and includes rape, unwanted sexual contact of any other form and sexual harassment.
