Michelle, Jessa and Jill Duggar all appeared in TLC’s documentary Breaking the Silence last night, seeking to educate and prevent sexual abuse.
In the aftermath of the abuse they faced at the hands of Josh Duggar more than a decade ago, the young women hope to help make things right.
Jill and Jessa Duggar joined a training seminar given by Darkness to Light, one of the United States’ leading organizations for abuse prevention.
"I was so glad that my girls and I were able to do this together and that we could just be a support and encouragement to each other," said Michelle.
The Duggar matriarch noted that the least they can do is to help others "to be able to gain more information about this important topic."
"It’s amazing to understand that there are so many people that deal with this exact same thing in their own families," added Jill, 24.
"So just being educated is very good."
Jessa, 22, noted, "I feel like this should be a discussion people are having, even regularly. I think that it shouldn’t be a taboo subject."
"We should be bringing awareness to child sexual abuse and talking about this," she said, though her family was in no hurry for years.
Before the revelation that Josh Duggar molested his sisters as a teen, the family tried to deal with his problems "in-house" and quietly.
He went on to rampantly cheat on wife Anna Duggar as a grown man, which further damaged his credibility – and his entire family’s.
This is not lost on Jessa, who is seven months pregnant and says that these events have inspired her to consider going forward:
"Things I can do to be more aware, things I can do to set boundaries and safeguards for my child and children, hopefully, in the future."
During the one-hour special, the Duggar sisters were just two of the survivors of all ages, male and female, who shared their stories.
Testimony by Teri Hatcher was featured, and Dancing with the Stars pro Cheryl Burke also shared her experience with sexual abuse.
"I’m only human and sometimes the stuff I’ve gone through, I think about all the time, and it just brings me back," Burke said.
Breaking the Silence teamed up TLC with RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) and Darkness to Light (D2L).
D2L is a non-profit group that works to empower people to prevent child sexual abuse and share the stories of its survivors.