Be careful of strangers!
section 10
5 years
59 meeting
Let’s review:
Once the meeting starts, welcome everyone and ask the participants: • Who can help us remember what we talked about in our last meeting? • Who was able to do the activity at home that we asked you to do at the end of the meeting? How did it go? • Does anyone have questions or concerns after doing the activity?
What are we going to learn?
We are going learn how to keep our children safe from strangers who want to harm them. LET’S TALK ABOUT IT! We are going to look at some pictures, so we can talk about what we all know about this topic. How can you help your child distinguish between real dangers and unfounded fears?
Do you know of incidents in your community involving strangers harming children? Share your story What have you taught your children about what to do when they come in contact with a stranger?
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Activity:
“Keeping children safe” We will make up skits that will show children what to do when they encounter strangers.
What we’ll need: • Materials to make puppets: socks,
WHAT WE’LL DO: buttons, yarn, scraps of colored Start a conversation with the participants about cloth how it can be dangerous for our children to be with strangers. Ask participants how they would feel if a stranger hurt their child. • Talk about the importance of explaining the dangers that a stranger represents to your children. You can do this in a non-threatening, creative way without causing unnecessary fear. • Next divide the participants into small groups and ask them to make up some short skits that will show children how to handle different situations with strangers. • Allow time for the groups to organize and practice their skits. If the group is animated and creative they can try to dramatize these topics with puppets. You can easily make puppets out of old socks: glue on buttons for eyes and a nose and use yarn for hair and decoration. (see Toys CD) • Choose a day with participants when they can present their skits to the children of the communityeither in church or school. After the presentations, have a discussion with the children to see if they understood the message and encourage parents to reinforce at home the message they want the children to learn. Other Suggestions: Make sure the information is clear in the skits. It should include the following messages: • When a stranger tells you to go with them or offers you candy or money, ignore them. Do not speak to them. • If a stranger comes to your house and you are alone, don’t open the door and don’t tell them you are home alone. • Never let a stranger touch your body. • Never tell a stranger your address, your name, or the names of your siblings and parents. • If a stranger is following you, run to a place where you know people and immediately tell them what is happening.
Facilitator’s Manual
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Summing Up:
What did we learn today? Now, we’ll review what we discussed today. • How do you feel after this meeting? Why? • What are the two most important things you’ve learned today? • What will you do differently based on what you learned during the meeting? • What did you like the most? Are there things you didn’t like? • Do you have any remaining concerns or questions about what we talked about? To finish, what would you recommend to improve today’s meeting when we do it again with another group. (Explain that answering this question will help the meeting be even better in the future for parents with small children.)
To do at home:
Tell participants to review what they learned at the meeting with their children.
Basic information for the facilitator: Learning more about being careful of strangers: 1- Strangers:
• Parents should teach their children how to be careful of people who want to harm them. • Children are naturally confident and can be easy prey for bad people. • Parents should clearly tell their children not to go near strangers who call to them or offer them presents. • They should encourage their children to stay inside community spaces where they are safe with other adults and children. • Parents should walk their children to school if possible, especially if it is far or the road is not well traveled. Groups of parents can take turns taking their children to school. It is important that children feel they can speak openly to their parents about anything so they will not be ashamed to tell if something happens to them. Children should know that their parents will believe them and do everything in their power to keep them safe.
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2- People you know:
• It’s important that parents recognize that most cases of abuse and violence towards children do not involve strangers but someone the child knows, usually a family member. • It is very important that parents make sure their children understand that no one has the right to touch them, threaten them, or be violent towards them. • Parents and other family members should assure children that they will listen to them if they have something difficult to tell them about. • Parents should talk to their children about the parts of the body, physical contact, healthy relationships and communication with adults. These conversations should involve both the father and mother and should be done in a loving, close way. Parents should avoid making children afraid or anxious because if their child ever needs to talk to a parent about abuse he or she needs to feel safe doing so.
3- Safety recommendations:
• Teach your children the safe routes and how to get home from every part of the community, the names of the people they can go to for help, their full name, their age, address, phone numbers (if parents have a phone), information about their parents, family members’ names, and places where they can find the authorities like police or teachers.
Facilitator’s Manual