A new online campaign is encouraging victims of domestic violence to reach out for help by drawing a black dot on their hands.
"The Black Dot Campaign is to enable victims who cannot ask for help verbally to ask for help with a simple black dot and people recognise this and help," the campaign says on its Facebook page.
The page was set up a week ago by a former victim of domestic violence and has so far received almost 20,000 likes.
"The original ethos for this campaign was to enable a victim to put a dot on their hand around someone they trusted to enable a conversation to start, so they could open that door and hopefully start a process of seeking professional help," the campaign states.
"If you see a black dot or are approached by someone for help, if safe to do so take them to safety and get them in contact with the relevant agency. Intervention and support should only be done by professionals."
Many victims have written on the campaign's Facebook page sharing their own stories of domestic abuse.
The campaign had reached 4.8 million people worldwide in six days, the page's administrator wrote on Facebook.
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