Table 15: The DOs and DON’Ts of effective listening

Figure 4 Illustration for the Three Types of Response

Referral

Counselling Legal Aid Hospital (Add your own Example)

Direct Support

Show Support Listen Use Open-ended Question (Add your own Example)

Report

Police Disciplinary Committe Social Welfare Office Village Leader (Add your own Example)

Tips for Effective Response

1) Develop a plan for reporting and referral with and within the school community that is clear, simple, accessible to all learners , confidential and respectful.

The response plan should have clear reporting lines and penalties for violating aspect of the plan e.g. confidentiality. 2) Go to report with another teacher, youth representative or responsible community representative. 3) Work with other community members and raise awareness on the importance of reporting through community structures e.g. village councils, religious structures etc.

4) Create response networks and support systems.

Know the points of referral within the community and the strengths and weaknesses of each, and plan how to work with those strengths and weaknesses.

For example, if one social worker has a reputation of being more sensitive to SRGBV than another, then look for that social worker and build a relationship. 5) Notify the learners, parents and other responsible adults and help them know and familiarize themselves with the response networks. 6) Know the processes, systems and limits of a referral point. Some referrals, for example, offer great services but require a lot of follow-up or pressure.

7) Accompanying the child, adolescent or young person to referral visits to advocate and intervene for him or her.

8) Keep advocating for the learner or making new referrals until the right services are offered. 9) No matter what happens, follow up with the child, adolescent or young person to make sure he or she knows that even if nothing happened as a result of the referral or reporting, the SRGBV incident was still wrong and not their fault. Create greater protection for them by getting the support of influential community members, preferably who have awareness and knowledge of SRGBV.

RESPONSE Figure 5 Illustration for Reporting and Referral

HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP SMC MINISTRY

MOTHER SUPPORT GROUP

HEAD TEACHER

HEALTH WORKER

VICTIM

SENIOR WOMAN

POLICE

VILLAGE LEADER

HOSPITAL

PTA

SOCIAL WORKER

PARENT SUPPORT GROUP

PARENT

NGO RELIGIOUS LEADER

PSS SPECIALIST

COUNSELOR

Table 14 Reporting point analysis

Reporting point SRGBV area covered

Police SRGBV in violation of the law.

Human Rights group SRGBV as a violation of human rights. Operational context Laws Culture National laws. Strong cultural norms that accept and entrench certain forms of SRGBV National laws. Strong cultural norms that accept and entrench certain forms of SRGBV

Religious leader All areas Religious and national laws Accepts early marriage within the religious law. Condemns pregnant unmarried girls. Strengths Weaknesses

Is familiar with law related to SRGBV.

Is familiar with law related to SRGBV.

Can offer some solace and counseling, within the religious setting. Very intimidating and may not take incidents seriously.

Has no sign language interpreters and special needs specialists? Can be judgmental.

THE CHAOS OF RESPONSE- Story for resource point activity A young girl is waylaid and sexually abused as she moves on her way to school after lunch. She suspects her assailant was an older boy from school, but she is not certain. Below is the response chain after the girl reports to her teacher.

The teacher goes with the girl to the head teacher to report the case of sexual violence. The head teacher refers the case to the senior women teacher and asks her to go with the deputy head teacher in charge of student affairs to report the matter to the police. The Police say, “The matter happened outside the school, report to the local chief first”. The senior women teacher refers the matter to the local chief.

The local chief refers the girl to the hospital to get a rape/ medical report. The girl sees the midwife at the hospital, who asks her to tell her story to the doctor. The midwife calls in the doctor, who asks her to tell her story again. The doctor treats the girl and calls in a counsellor. The girl tells the counsellor what happened. The counsellor takes the girl to the religious leader.

The religious leader contacts the church psychosocial support specialist, who asks for details, so the girl tells the story again. The psychosocial specialist calls the child’s rights NGO they work with. The programme officer is busy handling another case, and they ask the girl to come later with her parents. The deputy head teacher and senior women teacher take the girl to the school parent support group. The social worker, who works with the parent support group, asks the girl to tell her story. The social worker goes with the girl and parents back to the police. The police hear her story and write a report. The doctor meets with the parents, the girl and the police to discuss further treatment and evidence. The head teacher calls the PTA, which suggests that the mother support group, the local human rights group and the school health work should be involved. The girl tells her story to the school management committee which makes a report to the Ministry of Education.

Suggestions for reporting and referral

Some children, adolescents and young people will disclose incidents of SRGBV they have experienced to a teacher. Suggestions for immediate responses for the teacher are provided below. However, it is also important for the teacher to follow up with the learner directly. Always keep in mind that followup responses of any kind should be in the best interest of the child, adolescent or young person. All information should always be kept confidential.

Discuss with the child, adolescent or young person who they can trust to talk to immediately and who they would like to accompany him or her when reporting to an authority is required. If possible, always have a counselor or qualified person available to help learners talk privately about their feelings. Discuss with the child, adolescent or young person, available options for their recovery and make sure that they make choices from an informed position. Discuss with the child, adolescent or young person, options for reporting. Each child, adolescent or young person’s experience is unique and must be discussed with him or her and evaluated individually. Report any acts of SRGBV. This is a legal obligation of all teachers and other duty bearers under international and national law like the Children’s Act. When reporting specific incidents of SRGBV disclosed by a child, adolescent or young person, their safety must come first. Always follow up with the child, adolescent or young person. Following up shows them that you care and are dedicated to their wellbeing.

ACTIVITY 1: THE THREE TYPES OF RESPONSE (20 MINUTES)

1. Ask participants what they think response means in the context of the teacher or duty bearer’s role in responding to SRGBV; allow time for responses and note them down. Repeat the process and ask about direct support and reporting. Note the responses down.

2. Explain that learners who are at risk or have experienced

SRGBV will need a wide range of support; participants will need to develop a response plan and network in order to support them.

Take the participants through the three types of response, using the notes and Figure 4. 3. Summarize by telling participants that response needs to be done properly and share the tips on response. Put them where everyone can see them.

ACTIVITY 2: REPORTING (1 HOUR) Step 1 (30 MINUTES)

1. Have the Illustration for

Reporting and Referral in Figure 4 where everyone can see it.

Explain that in order to report an incident of SRGBV, a teacher or other duty bearer needs to know where to report. 2. Divide participants into 4 groups or online breakout rooms and give each group 5 referral points to handle. Ask them for each reporting point on separate sticky notes, slides or online notes, to write:

• The key contact person there e.g.

Police inspector. • The place where the contact person can be found e.g. Police station.

• The type of violation they would report to this person e.g. SRGBV that is in violation of the law. 3. Ask the participants to gather round the flipchart for Reporting and Referral in Figure 4. Ask the groups to stick the notes next to the corresponding reporting point on the illustration. (For virtual training you can ask them to share the slides or notes with other groups). 4. With the wider group, go over the illustration- Reporting and Referral in Figure 4 and go through each reporting network point, one by one, and identify possible strengths and weaknesses of the various reporting points. For example:

Police, Police station, SRGBV that is in violation of the law,

Strength: Is familiar with laws related to SRGBV, Weakness: Very intimidating and may not take

SRGBV incidents seriously. They can write these on a sticky note of another colour. Stick them on the illustrations next to the relevant reporting point. (For virtual training, they can take note of examples and continue practicing the process back in their schools).

Step 2: (30 MINUTES)

1. Using Table 14, tell participants that reporting points can also be subjected to further analysis of what legal and cultural context they operate in. 2. In their groups, ask participants to record details of reporting points in a tabular form on flipcharts, slides or online notes. 3. Let the groups to report back in plenary. Ask participants why it is important to know the operational context and potential weaknesses and strengths of a reporting network point.

WRAP UP: Summarize by explaining that reporting can feel risky and scary. It is not easy to approach some of the people on the list. They therefore need support from each other, the community and other referral and reporting network points.

ACTIVITY 3: THE CHAOS OF RESPONSE (40 MINUTES)

1. Inform participants that you are going to walk them through an

SRGBV scenario to demonstrate what reporting and referral might be like for a learner.

2. Ask participants to make and wear nametags for each of the response points from Figure 5 until all the response points are represented by participants.

If there are more participants than response points, some participants can be observers. In case there are less participants than response points, let everyone get a role. 3. Ask all participants who are wearing nametags of response points to sit in a circle. Put the chairs close together. Ask the observers to stand outside the circle.

4. Ask one participant to volunteer to represent the teacher of a 12- year-old girl. Give the participant a nametag that says

“Direct Support,” because this is one of the three categories of a response system. Explain to participants that the direct support participant is now going to activate and engage the other two categories of the response system: reporting and referral. 5. Ask the direct support participant to stand close to the circle (on the outside) and hold the ball of string. 6. Explain that the string represents a 12-year-old girl who was raped by a man who waylaid her as she walked to school.

7. Ask the participant to hold the end of the string, and without letting go of their end of the string to toss the ball of string, to a designated resource point (facilitator uses the sentences in THE CHAOS OF RESPONSE-

Resource Point Activity under the support notes to the facilitator, to tell participants where to throw the ball next). 8. Ask the resource point who receives the ball of string to wrap the string around his or her finger and then throw the ball of string to the next resource point that is named, and so on.

9. Stop the activity when each resource point has received the ball of string at least twice. 10.There will be a large web of string in the center of the circle, with each resource point holding parts of the string. 11.Ask resource points to stand up, drop the string web on the floor in front of them, step back and have a seat. Make sure the string web is in a place where all participants can see the confusing mess. 12.Remind participants that it is their job to reduce the chaos and re-victimization during the response process. Refer participants to the Tips for

Effective Response. (For virtual training, use a prerecorded short video of the process. You can make the video interesting by using costumes and props. Ensure that social distancing and wearing masks are observed in the video).

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

Use the following questions to guide the discussion: 1. Ask participants what they see in the middle of the circle.

2. Ask if this process was helpful to the girl. Why? Why not? 3. How many times did the girl have to repeat her story? 4. Even if a girl has high self-esteem or is very resilient, what must it be like for her to repeat such a traumatic story over and over? 5. What could have been done to avoid making this complicated web of string? 6. What role can participants play to minimize the complicated web? 7. As a resource point, how many times did each participant talk to this girl? Is there a way they

could have been a more effective resource point for this girl? 8. Ask participants to get into groups of two and brainstorm ways in which this girl’s teacher could have minimized the chaotic mess this response process became. Ask participants to share and write their ideas on a flipchart, slides, online notes or in-meeting chat. 9. Remind participants of their role in reducing the chaos of reporting and referral. Remind them of the list of ways to do this (see Activity 3).

WRAP UP:

1. Explain that there will always be challenges in reporting and referral, but it is the teacher or other duty bearer’s job to make these challenges as minimal and infrequent as possible. 2. Review what participants can do to reduce the chaos of reporting and referral.

3. End by noting that, perpetrators who are not held accountable for their actions will continue to commit acts of violence against children, adolescents and young people. More children, adolescents and young people may be harmed and suffer lifelong consequences. Reporting and responding to reports of violence is the first step to reducing SRGBV. However, the number of times a child has to recount their victimization through the act of testifying can be detrimental to the child’s well-being and recovery. A study in the United States found that all children between the ages of 6 and 14 who had been the victims of child sexual abuse and testified showed significant improvement in mental health over time, but the group who testified more than once showed higher levels of emotional distress two years after the initial assessment (UN, 2015). Session 2: Direct support to learners TIME: 1 HOUR AND 30 MINUTES