In Hungary every 5th woman is affected by domestic violence. They live among us but barely anyone noticing their struggle. Why is that? Because on the surface they are just like anyone else.

The Hungarian Interchurch Aid opened help centers countrywide to create safe places for victims of domestic violence to ask for help.

Our task was to reach victims and encourage them to open up and talk about their struggles.

We wanted to change this deeply rooted yet wrong perception and raise awareness of what an abusive relationship really looks like. To reach the 1 million women in Hungary who’re in a violent relationship we had to let them know that we understand their struggle. That’s why we’ve created the Matryoshka doll that looks normal on the outside but as soon as it opens up the marks of abusement reveals.

In Hungary every 5th woman is affected by domestic violence. This is a very high number if we think about it like this: one woman in every 5 women in a room are being abused at home. We needed to really get this shocking message across in a way that our target audience cannot disregard it.

Getting a mail as a journalist is a daily habit. They receive news, data, facts, even shocking ones. But what they really need to act is an experience. So instead of sending a letter or an e-mail we’ve sent real dolls to the journalists.

We have sent 40 dolls to 40 hand selected journalists at various publishing houses with papers inside. These personal mails directed their attention to the fact that they might be sharing the room with a victim of domestic violence, and asked them to use their influence for good, and share.

We’ve sent 40 dolls to journalists, opinion leaders and influencers between October and December, 2018, to experience the nature of domestic violence. And we’ve asked them to help us spread our one and only message: the address of help centers where victims can open up.

The impact was far above our expectations. Even national media has picked up our story and they’ve spread our one and only message: the address of help centers where victims can open up. With only 40 dolls we had 27 655 000 media impressions.

And most importantly crisis centers have got hundreds of appointments and helped many victims in need.