ARE SCHOOLS SAFE HAVENS FOR CHILDREN?

to have time for these new roles, the administration has lightened the teaching load to allow time duringthe school day for activities associated with the program and has provided space for confidentialcounseling.COUNSELING AND SUPPORT SYSTEMS FOR STUDENTSSome strategies for making schools safer for children include deploying well-trained guidance counselors.In Tanzania, a guardian program was established by the Tanzania-Netherlands Project to Support AIDSControl in Mwanza Region. As part of this program, a female teacher was selected by her colleagues to bea guardian to female students. This teacher was trained to raise the issue of exploitation with her chargesand to take on a counseling role for these girls. An assessment of the guardian program revealed that thepresence of a guardian significantly increased the chances of female students asking for support fromguardians or other female teachers when confronted with sexual violence or harassment. Guardiansreported to school boards, courts, and district authorities on rape cases, most of which were perpetrated bymale teachers and men from the community. Educational authorities removed at least two teachers fromtheir schools after they were accused of raping students. The evaluation noted that the program generatedmuch greater awareness of the sexual abuse of female students by teachers, and that the negative publicityof being accused of abuse probably acted as a deterrent to other teachers (Mgalla, Boerma, and Schapink1998).PREVENTION AND SUPPORT THROUGH COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENTTwo promising strategies have been used to engagecommunities in addressing SRGBV: usingcommunity members as classroom assistants andestablishing community education committees. Someprograms have trained female community membersas classroom assistants to help protect students fromabuse and to create a school environment conduciveto learning. Introducing a female presence in theclassroom is intended to balance a primarily maleteaching force, which has made girls vulnerable totransactional sex for good grades. The femaleassistants act as a deterrent to teachers by serving aswitnesses to any misconduct and by reducingopportunities for teachers to be alone with students.The International Rescue Committee initiated aclassroom assistants program at refugee schools inA village president in India addresses community issues at amonthly meeting of the village welfare committee.© 2007 Pradeep Tewari, Courtesy of PhotoshareGuinea and Sierra Leone. An assessment of the programs in both countries indicated positive changes inteachers’ behaviors. Girls reported that they felt that the classrooms were more welcoming and supportiveof learning. Boys also reported that the assistants made the classroom experience more comfortable (Kirkand Winthrop 2005).Community education advisory committees offer another way to reduce gender-based violence in schools.Initiated as part of the USAID-supported Basic Education System Overhaul II project in Ethiopia, thecommittees are composed of mostly female students, a female teacher advisor, other teachers, and one ortwo mothers. Committees have responded to physical, sexual, and psychological violence using a multiprongedapproach. Efforts included developing strategies to protect girls on the way to and from school,initiating girls clubs to provide safe places for them to discuss violence, reporting threats to the health andsafety of students to school directors and PTAs, and teaching boys and girls how to treat each otherARE SCHOOLS SAFE HAVENS FOR CHILDREN?EXAMINING SCHOOL-RELATED GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE17