FCB Warsaw: The I’m Sorry flowers that made a government change its mind about domestic violence

When a new government took over in Poland 2016, the Polish Ministry of Justice denied funding to all organisations helping abused women, arguing they were helping only women and discriminating men.

This was a huge blow to NGOs and meant that a great number of women would be likely to face dire circumstances with inadequate help.

FCB Warsaw and the Poland’s Center for Women’s Rights decided to try to reverse the decision. They sent a message to politicians, “Is I’m Sorry really enough?”, using the medium (or in FCB’s words, chauvinistic cliché’) men choose most often to apologise. Flowers – a collection of flowers reflecting the typical circle of violence, where every flower was named after offences corresponding to different abuse – from verbal threats to killing the partner. And a collection of flowers used as a symbol of the desperation of abused women in Poland.

The flowers were made into bouquets that told real stories of battered women, gathered by The Center of the Women Rights Foundation.

Just before International Women’s Day, when men traditionally buy woman flowers, the I’m Sorry flower collection was introduced to flower shops across Poland to gather social support for the cause. On March 8, 2017, 460 I’m Sorry I’m Alive bouquets were sent to each of 460 members of Parliament, asking to bring back the funding for Center for the Women’s Rights.

Media supported the cause, and restoring funds for The Center of the Woman became one of the main postulates of International Women’s Day Strike on March 8.