The artist Coral Campopiano promoted the “Sign of Help” campaign in Argentina. It is a bodily gesture designed so that victims of gender violence can ask for help. The procedure consists of the woman showing the palm of the hand with her fingers stretched out, then placing the thumb in the palm and then closing in a fist with the thumb inside the fist, making the key to the aid. The person who sees another person making this gesture should read it as a warning sign and therefore call line 144, the line that provides attention, containment and advice in situations of gender-based violence.
“For months I have been trying, from my place, fighting against all odds, that the signal becomes visible. That someone has used it in front of their aggressor in a public place, shows that the road traveled, the blows and frustrations, are worth it. The help signal is being used and it is a fact, that’s why let’s keep fighting for it to be legalized in our country,” he said on his Instagram account. As she told this media, it refers to international cases of women who made the gesture to ask for help, as it was known in Spain and North Carolina.It was designed for the Canadian Women’s Foundation by an advertising agency in Toronto. “I saw a video that came from Canada where they explain that this is the one indicated to warn gender violence being in pandemic with the aggressor in constant coexistence. At that time I thought it was a great idea and I immediately talked to the people of Canada to tell them that I wanted to replicate it,” he told Filo.The truth is that the campaign branched out throughout the country and the world. Coral arrived at the UN as the only representative of Latin America in the First Concert for Peace, where she performed the song “Fosforescente”; it was shared by Argentine consulates in the United States, and was even distinguished as the Porteña Legislature, which declared both the campaign and the song of general interest.
“Fortunately, after pushing a lot, and not loosening for a minute, we are working together with the Ministry of Security and the Ministry of Women and Gender to instruct all the police in the country so that they can respond to the signal, and then we will do the dissemination campaign to indicate to the people in what situation and to whom the signal will be taken as valid for the state to respond. Today the starting point is gender violence, but we hope its use will expand as this is put into practice (human trafficking, child abuse, abuse of older adults, kidnapping, etc.),” said the artist in an interview with Filo.News that you can read here.
