A series of trained facilitators conducted training sessions between January and February with 116 Romanian teachers from their schools (including school management), according to the methodology provided by the Terre des hommes Foundation. They took place as part of the CARING project, Challenging Social and Gender Norms to Reduce Violence Against Children in School.
Through these sessions, teachers from the eight partner schools in Olt, Dolj, Gorj, Bacău and Bucharest assimilated information about social and gender norms in schools and learned how social and gender norms can be harmful. They were also told about the importance of children's rights and the active role adults must play in upholding them. Teachers will thus have improved skills to create safe and child-friendly schools and change harmful social and gender norms.
Through the sessions, they learned how to ensure that the child's voice becomes a key aspect of the assessment and intervention processes; how to more deeply include the emotional dimension in working with children to facilitate respectful, safe and realistic environments in which they communicate and practice constructive feedback.
According to the feedback obtained from the participants through direct consultation, questionnaires, in all training sessions, the objectives were achieved, the participants understood the principles of gender-based violence, the CARING methodology was attractive and helped to convey information. The teachers were open in approaching a new topic such as gender-based violence and appreciated the fact that they could discuss the problems they face in school, receive feedback from colleagues, share their experiences.
The CARING project is co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
