Programme for Children and Teens on Gender Awareness

Report by Winnie Yee

Being a women’s group, we have always focused on adults in our activities, although we are aware that children, especially young girls, are just as vulnerable to abuse. In recent years, young girls and teenagers form the majority of reported cases of rape and other sexual crimes. Because of this worrying trend, SAWO started to work with children and teenagers in 2004 by organizing activities to raise their awareness. The main activities that we have conducted include:

              • Kids’ workshop on learning to be safe in November 2004
              • Presentation on children’s safety in conjunction with Kids’ EXPO in December 2004
              • Training on prevention of child sexual abuse with P.S. the Children in March 2005
              • Kids’ workshop on gender awareness in December 2005
              • Teens’ gender awareness workshop in March 2006
              • Kids’ workshop on “Diversity: Same but Different” in June 2006

The main objectives of these activities are to assess children’s understanding and promote self-awareness of gender and gender issues, to break down stereotypes of boy and girl so as to empower children and foster mutual respect, to encourage respect for diversity, and to enable us to acquire experience, skills and knowledge in working with young children and teenagers.

We would like to invite those with the experience, expertise or energy to come and join us in conducting similar activities.