Vietnamese beauty queen urges the sexually abused and exploited to break the silence

While the number of rape and assaults has increased amid the pandemic due, Miss Universe Vietnam 2020 Nguyen Tran Khánh Van recently took to her official Instagram account urging victims who were sexually assaulted or harassed to speak up and break their silence. In association with One Body Village organization is trying to bring hope to sexually abused and exploited children, particularly in Southeast Asia.

Along with harrowing pictures demonstrating the physical and mental torture the victims go through she shared a report conducted by the iSEE Institute, and said, “It has been shown that 90.4% of the victims felt worried, scared, depressed and had a sense of inferiority after experiencing sexual harassment. These mental wounds have caused them to have an indelible psychological obsession as well as the fear of loneliness; they think that once they speak up, they will be alienated and despised by the others. It is the fear of being despised that prevents them from exposing the crime and letting the truth be told.”

The report also stated that 58.4% of the victims did nothing and kept the violence under wraps while 67% of people did not lend a helping hand to the victims who were sexually harassed. “It is the hardest time when the victims are appealing for help, all they receive is just the indifference and ignorance or even strong criticism from people around them. Wearing a beautiful outfit will make them happier when going out. Having a little makeup will increase their confidence when communicating with the others. But what makes them confident and happy turns out to be sharp knives pointing at them whenever the psychology of the victim blaming appears,” exclaimed the beauty queen.

Nguyen in association with One Body Village tries to help these victims gain back the self confidence and help them build a brighter future. She even shared a story where she brought back another victim who had to go back to her family to support them financially leaving her exposed to exploitation again. “She has to leave the #OneBodyVillage family to help her mother because her family is very poor. When we visited her again, she hugged us... tears of joy and reunion,” said Nguyen and further added that, “She has been a victim of sexual abuse, so sad... and currently, her life isn't safe, she is still at high risk of sexual exploitation. Therefore, we convinced her to come back to our beloved OBV - happily she agreed, She will continue to go to school and follow her dream... Fighting, we love you ❤️”

Images: Nguyễn Trần Khánh Vân official Instagram page