Sexual violence against girls in schools overlooked - Report
Sexual violence against girls in schools (SVAGS) is an overlooked obstacle to girls’ empowerment. Not only does it promote students’ risk of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), it also reinforces a culture in which sexual violence is legitimised.
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A report compiled by the Gender Studies and Human Rights Documentation Centre (GSHRDC), a non-governmental organisation that embarked on a project with the objective of using mobile phone technology to prevent sexual violence against girls in schools, showed that sexual violence against girls in schools was also linked to economic, emotional and psychological violence, in which victims were often made to feel responsible.
Poor understanding of issues
Notwithstanding these, one of the problems faced in addressing SVAGS is that the scope and causes of the issue are poorly understood.
No national data has ever been collected on SVAGS even though several studies have been undertaken within schools or districts.
This is because the methods used are prone to under-reporting, in the light of cultural taboos in which women are not expected to talk about sex, while those who dare to do so are stigmatised.
According to the report, a tragic illustrative example is that of “bush allowance” – the accepted belief that teachers are entitled to sexual favours from female students on account of accepting postings to rural areas.
It is against this backdrop that the GSHRDC embarked on a project dubbed: ‘Cell Phones Against Sexual Violence: Using Mobile Technology to Promote Safer Schools,’ with the objective of using mobile phone technology to prevent sexual violence against girls in school.
The project, which also aims at educating girls on their right to live free of violence through gender clubs, as well as educate service providers on their duties, led to the launch of the first national SVAGS survey. It was also aimed at working with women’s rights organisations to launch a conversation that challenged social norms.
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Selected districts
As part of the project, a total of four districts in the Brong Ahafo and Greater Accra regions have been selected for the training of both boys and girls, to serve as peer educators and focal points for the education of their peers and reporting of sexual violence to the appropriate institutions.
The beneficiary districts in the Brong Ahafo Region are the Kintampo and Wenchi municipalities and the Nkoranza North District, with the Ledzokuku-Krowor Municipality as the other beneficiary in the Greater Accra Region.
In each of the districts, 10 schools have been selected with upper primary and junior high school students as the targets.
Training of students
At a training programme for 100 beneficiary students from the Wenchi and Kintampo municipalities, made up of 60 girls and 40 boys, the Project Officer and Facilitator of the GSHRDC, Mrs Esther Darko-Mensah, explained that her outfit was implementing the project in partnership with Gender Centre and Voto Mobile.
Voto Mobile is a well-established and fast-growing social enterprise with offices in Ghana, Canada, US and Zimbabwe.
Their services involve partners distributing and collecting information by engaging apparently difficult to reach populations through their mobile phones.
The project is being funded by Amplify Change, which is a pooled fund supported by DANIDA, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Viiv Foundation.
Mrs Darko-Mensah said the selected students were being trained to report on any sexual violence which occurred in their localities on toll-free mobile phones which would be given to them for the purpose.
Peer educators
The peer educators will forward the calls to a call centre established by the GSHRDC which will be analysed and directed to the appropriate stakeholders for redress.
In all cases, the Ghana Education Service (GES) will be consulted because the subjects are students.
“We want to use the project to see how best we can track down or curb sexual violence against girls and sometimes boys in schools.”
She explained that boys had been included in the project because they were also sometimes sexually abused.
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One of the peer educators of the Atakura M/A Junior High School in the Kintampo Municipality said: “I am now well positioned to report any sexual violence against both girls and boys in my area. I plead that this programme should be sustained and extended to all districts throughout the country. We need to do more to eliminate sexual violence in schools and our communities,” she added.
Writer’s email: emmanuel.gyamerah@graphic.com.gh