The Need
While girls and young women in rural Kenya are at significant risk for gender-based violence, due to a lack of resources and awareness, many public primary school teachers are unequipped to respond to instances. In our School Network, sexual gender-based violence accounted for 81% of all gender-based violence cases reported, with 91% being girls ages 10 – 17 years old. Over half of adolescents who experienced sexual gender-based violence did not seek help within the critical 72-hour window.
Our Approach
We train primary school teachers and Child Protection Volunteers to respond to, report, and prevent gender-based violence and to support girls who have experienced gender-based violence.
By addressing gender-based violence at the school, teacher, student, and community levels, we are helping to ensure that all stakeholders are working in partnership to create safe and supportive learning environments for all girls.
What we do
Leadership & Influence
- We implement Child Protection Policies and protocols for addressing and reporting gender-based violence, including a zero tolerance policy for gender-based violence, and
- We bridge the gap between public primary school teachers and Child Protection Volunteers so that teachers can report instances of gender-based violence.
Training & Support
- We train primary school teachers in partnership with the Department of Children’s Services, Child Protection Volunteers, and The Teachers Service Commission, to ensure that they are equipped to prevent, respond to, and report instances of gender-based violence in their classrooms and communities.
Impact Highlights
Increased confidence in skills for self protection
50%
Following Gender-Based Violence Prevention Workshops for girls from three public primary schools in our Network, we saw a 50% increase in the number of girls who reported having the tools to identify and protect themselves against gender-based violence (30% at baseline; 80% at endline).
25%
Following the same workshops, we saw a 25% increase in the number of girls who demonstrated knowledge and understanding of how to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (40% at baseline; 65% at endline).
Developing tools to prevent gender-based violence
193
We trained 193 teachers and 3,270 students at 9 Network schools on gender-based violence prevention. Following the workshops, all participating teachers signed our Child Protection Policy and our zero tolerance policy for gender-based violence and took a pledge to uphold this practice in their own school communities.
100%
100% of participating teachers were able to correctly identify both their legal obligation to report instances of gender-based violence as well as identify the appropriate referral pathway for cases of gender-based violence.
Teacher“I am a mathematics teacher. The data displayed to us indicate that girls in our country and our society are still facing discrimination and harassment. As a male teacher and a father to girls, this information is crucial to me. We must support the girls so they can achieve their full potential.”
Teacher Mucibau Primary
