Blue Umbrella Day (BUD), which is a campaign that raises awareness of how to better care for boys and protect them from sexual violence was launched on April 16th as part of Childlink’s two-year public education campaign.
Childlink, in a press release, stated that the BUD campaign is an initiative by global network, Family For Every Child, and its local stakeholder, Childlink. Blue Umbrella Day raises awareness of how to better care for boys and protect them from sexual violence. The BUD initiative relied on the research findings from Caring for Boys research conducted by Family For Every Child; that report states, partially, that “sexual violence affecting boys remains largely unknown, unacknowledged and not responded to, across a wide range of contexts and cultures, mostly as a result of gendered social norms, which influence perceptions of boys’ vulnerability. These also pose an obstacle to disclosure by boys, identification and acceptance by others, recognition of harm caused, and recognition of the support needed to recover”.