THE COLOUR SISTERHOOD aims to provide kits to young people wanting to facilitate the String Movement in their school or community.

Tahlia’s STORY.
“At primary school I experienced bullying because of my dark skin, all the girls looked different to me. I always got teased, being told I didn’t belong in this country. In Spanish class there was a photo on the wall of me and because of my skin colour they grabbed the picture of me and put pins in my eyes. When I got to high school it was sort of the same but different. The way of bullying was different. It was harsher because everyone had phones and social media. I had someone make a Facebook page about my sister, because of the way she looked too. People could just say whatever they felt like without any care about how it made us feel. There was a lot of peer pressure surrounding bullying. There was an Indian girl in my year and people would say stuff to me about her. If I didn’t join in I thought they would do stuff to me but then if I stood up people would also treat me badly. Pack bullying would happen. A big group of people would join together to bully. At my school I noticed that things got worse as the generations were younger. The grade below me was really into bullying over social media. They would always make comments about girl’s profile pictures. I would notice boys pushing other kids around in the playground. You could hear kids planning how they were going to bully those around them. There was a boy in my class that they would always tease before sports class. One day I saw them pushing and shoving him against the goal post on the playground. This was the first time I knew that I had to do something about it; I had to make a stand.

I decided that it was not cool that he would have to feel like that, or that anyone would have to feel like that! I saw on The String Movement Facebook page that another school had the team come into their school and I thought if they can do it surely I could do something! I organised a lunch time group with people and we invited The String Movement Team to come and speak. We handed string for people to tie around their wrist to make a stand and say that bullying wasn’t okay. We spoke about how to BE KIND in our home room classes to raise awareness. From there we ran a String Movement ‘Think Tank’ and we talked about how we could take what we were doing in our school into the wider community. Personally I saw such a massive difference in the girls around me, including my little sisters. They came to The String Movement Think Tank with me and they were so encouraged that they could actually do something to make a difference to the bullying that was happening to them and others. After the Think Tank I would walk around my school and see kids carrying string in their school bags; it went everywhere with them.”

The NEED.
3 out of 5 students are bullied in Australia.

On average three out of five students are bullied in Australia and 160,000 young people stay at home from school each day because of bullying. In the lives of victims, bullying can cause; increased anxiety, stress, illness, withdrawal, isolation, low self-esteem, lack of assertiveness, insecurity and depression. Young people who bully are more likely to drop out of school, abuse drugs and engage in criminal behaviour. Those who bully have a one in four chance of having a criminal record by the age of 30. Those who bully are 9x more likely to have suicidal thoughts.

The PROJECT.
Tie it, Tell it and Yell it. The String Movement program is based on three stages of involvement: students are invited to “Tie it, Tell it and Yell it” in their world. Firstly a student ties a piece of string around their wrist as a symbol to say that they are not okay with bullying. Secondly they learn the facts and tell it to their friends. Lastly, the student is empowered to become a string advocate in their school community through using our tool kit to speak in their school. The String Movement kits are based on the third stage of involvement which involves YELLING the message.

Local Church AWARENESS.
If you are part of a local church please be mindful of your local church vision and be sure to graciously submit and share your heart with those in leadership in your life. We believe we should see this as an ‘above and beyond’ endeavour that has the capacity to reach out and build bridges into our unchurched communities and ultimately be a blessing.

Our RESPONSE.
PRAY
For the youth, students, teachers, parents and communities that take a stand against bullying and become advocates. Pray for the victims of bullying to know they are loved and believed in. Pray for the bullies themselves, that they get a revelation of love.

FUNDRAISE.
Check out our handy little tips on various ways to raise funds. Please see the financial guidelines document online for more practical information. Please note that if a project is completed we reserve the right to transfer any excess funds to another project.

THE DETAILS.
$500 AUD enables 20 students to be advocated to disarm bullying in their local schools. 1 kit empowers a student to impact 500 students, 20 kits will empower 10,000 students to join the string movement.

£500 enables 40 students to be advocated to disarm bullying in their local schools. 1 kit empowers a student to impact 500 students, 20 kits will empower 10,000 students to join the string movement.

€500 enables 33 students to be advocated to disarm bullying in their local schools. 1 kit empowers a student to impact 500 students, 20 kits will empower 10,000 students to join the string movement.

$500 USD enables 29 students to be advocated to disarm bullying in their local schools. 1 kit empowers a student to impact 500 students, 20 kits will empower 10,000 students to join the string movement.

TELL US YOUR STORY
Send us an email at [email protected] as we would love to hear about how you did it!