The silent victims of sexual assault find their voice

by Hailey Trealout

As the years pass, Statistics Canada shows the number of sexual assaults staying in the thousands.
A report done by the Fredericton Sexual Assault Crisis Centre states about 1,400 sexual assaults occur daily in Canada.
Groups around the world work hard to keep them from happening, having students escorted to their cars at night and having awareness lectures to educate citizens before they are victimized.
In October 2011, 19-year-old New Yorker Grace Brown was approached by a friend who disclosed she was a victim of sexual assault. That night, Brown was sleepless, trying to think of a way to make things right again.
“It wasn’t the first story I had heard, and it wasn’t the worst story I had heard,” said Brown. “Something about the story had really gotten to me… I wanted a way to say, ‘Look at what’s happening. Look at what’s going on in the world’.”
The following morning, Project Unbreakable was born, helping victims become survivors.
“Sexual assault is a certain taboo,” said Brown. “Reality is, most often, the perpetrator is someone the survivor knows and just the way our society views sexual assault, and the shame and the hiding it under the rug, it perpetuates everything else.”
Since its beginnings, Brown has photographed 450 survivors of sexual assault. She has also received 3,000 submissions from people all over the world. Lydia Fiorini is the Executive Director at the Sexual Assault Crisis Centre in Windsor. She said she will be referring some of her clients to Brown’s group.
“They all have a story to tell in terms of what was the lasting words or comments that stayed in their mind as a result of their victimization,” said Fiorini. “It gives them an opportunity to decrease the impact of that fear of those words. Some of these victims have that lasting statement, the fact that they’re sharing it with other victims gives them a sense of ‘I’m not the only one.”
According to Project Unbreakable, less than half of all sexual assaults are reported to authorities, a number Brown says she wants to improve through her photos.
“I want people to know that they’re not alone, that they are supported and believed and understood – that they are unbreakable.”
For more information on Project Unbreakable, visit www.projectunbreakable.com.