The Clothesline Project is a non-governmental organization created to bring awareness to the issue of violence against women men and children. For those who have been affected by violence, it is a means of expressing their emotions by decorating a t-shirt. After the shirts have been decorated, they are hung on a clothesline display. The intention of the display is to honor survivors and act as a memorial for victims. It is also intended to aid in the healing process for those who were directly affected and those who have lost someone special to violence. Lastly, the clothesline display is to educate society and promote awareness, as well as to document violent crimes against women. History Rachel Carey-Harper came up with the idea of hanging color-coded t-shirts on a clothesline in a public place to gain recognition of the issue after hearing that while 58,000 soldiers died in the Vietnam War, there were 51,000 women killed around the same time by men who claimed to love them. She brought the concept and design to a group of women on Cape Cod, Massachusetts which started The Clothesline Project in 1990. This motivated the women to create a program that would speak up and reveal the issue of violence against women. Many of the women had personally experienced violence and Rachel wanted to find an unprecedented way of educating others on this matter. The group thought it was naturally the thing to do since women were known for doing laundry and exchanging information while their clothes were hanging out to dry. Each woman would have the opportunity to tell her story by decorating a shirt with words and art that represented her experience. She would then hang the shirt on a clothesline for the world to view. The earliest project exposed 31 shirts in Hyannis, Massachusetts as part of the annual "Take Back the Night" March and Rally in October 1990. Since then, The Clothesline Project has received publicity in articles of various magazines and a huge national response has turned this project into a worldwide campaign. Right now there is an estimated 500 projects nationally and internationally involving about 50,000 to 60,000 t-shirts. There are currently projects in 41 states and 5 countries, ranging from Massachusetts to Tanzania. T-Shirt Representation The Clothesline displays shirts that exhibit a great range of abuse. Despite the fact that each individual shirt has one-of-a-kind significance,