On Friday, November 22, 2019, Sleepless in Monrovia had the privilege of partnering with a prominent high school in Monrovia, Liberia, the Don Bosco Technical High School, for its first Sexual and Gender-based Violence Awareness Seminar. Joshua Kulah, our Editor in Chief, coordinated the seminar with the help of Cyrene Williams and Gerald Hodges, two of SiM’s featured writers. It was a wonderful experience having conversations with 42 students from the 6th Grade class (9-12 years-old) about Sexual and Gender Based Violence Prevention.
The seminar lasted for about an hour, starting with an introduction of SiM and the work we do as a platform to showcase Liberia’s creativity and a safe space to create awareness on taboo and SGBV related topics. Next, we conducted a brief survey to gauge the students’ understanding and awareness on S/GBV related issues followed by a guided discussion that included video and powerpoint presentations defining terms and showing ways students can prevent and report different forms of sexaul and gender related abuse.
Here are some of the results from the survey conducted at the start of the seminar:
- 15 of 42 participants did not know what rape and sexual assault is.
- 25 of 42 participants said they were or knew someone who had experienced SGBV
- 23 of 42 participants said an older person has not had a conversation with them about rape and sexual assault before.
- 14 of 42 participants thought it was not possible for a man to rape his spouse or girlfriend.
- 33 of 42 participants did not think it was possible for a woman to rape a man.
- 18 of 42 thought it was not possible for a person under 18 to rape another person.
- 22 of 42 participants did not think a teacher having an affair with a student was rape. (Almost everyone who said a person under 18 cannot rape another did not think a teacher-student relationship was rape; only 2 did).
- None of the participants could articulate the meaning of the acronym, “SGBV”.
- 32 of 42 participants said a guy saying “fine girl I like the way your but racking” (catcalling) to a walking lady and slapping her butt was sexual assault.
- 35 of 42 participants did not know what consent was.
- 31 of 42 participants thought that a person is weak if they were raped.
- 33 of 42 participants thought a person can prevent themselves from being raped.
By the end of the seminar, all the students could recite the meaning of “SGBV”, and could explain consent, rape and sexual assault. They were also taught how to report SGBV safely and anonymously and pledged to not be the reason anybody suffers any form of sexual or gender based violence and to help prevent, report and stop any form of gender based violence they see, hear or witness. After the seminar, the students and teachers were encouraged to check SiM’s website to stay updated with our publications and even write for us!
Sleepless in Monrovia is grateful to the administration of Don Bosco for such a great opportunity, our goal is to continue this in more schools around the country, and make SGBV Awareness a fixture in Liberia’s education system.
