National Rugby League officiating squad this year will partner with Bravehearts 11th time consecutively. NRL officiating squad is the longest charity partner of Bravehearts. This year, match officials will be seen with purple custom socks in round 25. The officials will wear socks to support and raise awareness for Bravehearts charity. Bravehearts is a charity organization in Australia and is currently employing more than 65 people across the country.
The organization was founded by Hetty Johnston, AM in 1997 for providing child protection training and education initiatives, specialist child sexual assault counseling and support services. It is also carrying researches and reform campaigns to avoid sexual assault with children in our society. Many kinds of research have found that every one child out of five faces sexual assault before reaching the age of 18 years. And in every ten minutes, one child gets encountered with sexual harassment. Purple is the color of courage, hence the match officials during National Rugby League matches will wear purple custom socks to raise awareness among people.
Hetty Johnston founded Bravehearts after a personal and traumatic experience. Hetty’s young daughter, Kayleen was sexually abused by her grandfather. At that time Hetty went in search of an organization to support and guide his daughter but there was no such organization in the country. This led Hetty to build Bravehearts to advise and support children who have faced sexual harassment.
