On 5th May 2018, we conducted a one-day school awareness event on GBV Prevention in Al-nawawi School Garowe which reached 300 youth, teachers and other staff participated in it.
We cannot continue to address issues concerning young people without involving young boys and girls. Gender Based Violence (GBV) in and around schools is a worldwide problem with serious implications for the educational attainment, health and well-being of boys and girls. The deeply rooted cultural norms in Somalia further aggravate the problem. The physical and psychological abuse inflicted either consciously or unconsciously by students on other students makes their stay in school unattractive, some end up dropping out and can leave long-lasting scars invisible to the eye. It’s important to raise awareness at a tender age to shape the thinking and change the mindsets of boys and girls on gender sensitive issues.
We believe this will help youth cultivate attitudes that do not condone any form of GBV in the long run, the aim being to create gender activism among youths, especially schools learners, help both genders learn to have control over their own bodies and break cultural practices that impede such control, engage both genders in GBV prevention, raise young people awareness on GBV in the virtual space, constitute a Knowledge resource for the public and the victims
Topics covered:
- Definition of Gender-based violence (GBV)
- causes of GBV
- Risks of GBV
- Role of youth to prevent GBV cases
- Gender activism
- Forms of GBV
We selected the youth in secondary schools because the youth in schools are mostly affected by GBV and also because they are sexually active, in addition the youth can be the real agents of change within their communities on GBV issues and attitudinal change on GBV.
We urged them to play a role in ensuring the GBV cases are stopped prevented in the communities they live and in their own families. We also reminded them that women have fundamental rights and which are in tandem with human rights and kind of abuses should be stopped, because the girls are their sisters, mothers, and no one like his/her sister, mother, aunty and niece to be abused and violated and any abuse and gender violation should be reported to the authorities and relevant agencies.
A central problem we identified under the scope of the review is the fact that many forms and incidents of gender violence in schools are not reported as such. Most often, gender violence is not considered differently from other forms of school violence
Cases of gender-based violence in schools may be categorized and reported differently and without reference to gender, e.g. unregulated and excessive corporal punishment, bullying and physical assault (sometimes with guns or knives) should be included alongside sexual harassment, sexual abuse and rape because they are also manifestations of gender violence.
The objectives were:
To raise awareness, shape the mindsets of students especially boys and make them drivers of GBV Prevention and Response beyond their school-walls.
- To create linkage and GBV reporting mechanism from students to their elected leaders to mentors/teachers and CREW.
- Create an avenue for the trained teachers to constantly integrate their acquired knowledge into their everyday teaching culture To increase knowledge and understanding of gender-based violence and the relationships between boys and girls, men and women, placing emphasis on male norms and behaviours
- To raise awareness of the relevant legislation and the roles and functions of existing agencies working towards the reduction of GBV
- To build the capacity of students, teachers and community leaders to raise awareness of and respond to GBV and to advocate for GBV prevention within their respective organisations and peer groups, thereby leading to the sustainability of GBV prevention and alleviation activities
Details of the awareness session
In as much as the students were so responsive and curious to learn more about GBV, it wasn’t a smooth process at all. There is still a lot to be done to change the mindsets of students and have them understand that GBV does exist and has serious implications on the victims. It’s difficult to convince a culturally “empowered” young Somali boy that his sister or fellow female student is equal to him, some boys continued to make sexist jokes during the sessions. Some of the students shied off when their teachers were around and this limited their participation and opinions on SRGBV that occur in their schools/communities. Almost all schools had no large conference halls that can accommodate all or at least half of the students, that forced us to divide them up and handle them differently which greatly affected our initially planned joint interactions.
The students learnt that GBV is a term for any harmful act that is perpetrated against a person’s will and that is based on socially ascribed differences between males and females. GBV can occur in both private and public spheres, meaning that it can be perpetrated in the home by family members (e.g. domestic violence) as well as by those outside of the family, such as neighbors, co-workers, strangers, community leaders, etc. Whereas the main causes of GBV are rooted in gender inequality and discrimination, risks of GBV are exacerbated during emergencies as a result of the erosion of protective structures and community cohesion, thus increasing both vulnerabilities and risks for women and girls. It is within this context that GBV must be understood as a life-threatening protection issue that needs to be taken into account and prioritized from the onset of a crisis.
Conclusion:
Mr. Abdirahman Abdulahi closed the one-day GBV Awareness event with vote of thanks. He asserted the members present to spread the message without fail to all their respective families and communities they come from.