More than 100 children and adolescents between 12-18 years old from eight schools in Romania participated in the past months in informal meetings where they discussed with teachers about safety and the causes of violence. The aim was for them to understand the psychological and social mechanisms through which violence takes place, especially within the school, and to be involved in solutions.
Everything was done through creative exercises such as role-playing, drawing or brainstorming on a given topic, which were used by teachers to highlight the students' qualities (cooperation, maturity, strategy). The sessions took place over the last three months and involved at least 18 hours of meetings per school, outside the schedule and exclusively with interested children, who offered themselves without any constraints or obligations from the teaching staff.
The sessions took place within the CARING project - Challenging social and gender norms to reduce violence against children in school, co-financed by the European Union. Through the CARING project, we raise awareness about gender-based violence in schools in four countries in southeastern Europe (Romania, Croatia, Greece, Bulgaria), but we also bring to light the mechanisms that lead to the perpetuation of this phenomenon.
CARING is co-funded by the European Union
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