In November, ICDI, in cooperation with long-standing partner Labour and Social Health Initiatives (LSHI), facilitated a 3 day training about online sexual violence. The training was part of the LHSI project ‘Cybersafety for teens’, which focuses on ensuring gender equality by preventing online sexual harassment of schoolgirls in the Ukraine. The project is funded by the Dutch Embassy.
The main issues addressed in the training included:
- What is online sexual violence and what are the main types?
- Causes and consequences for all actors involved
- Teaching safe, responsible online behaviour (including how to address issues related to sexuality, victim blaming and gender stereotyping)
- What can young people do to prevent or respond to online sexual violence?
- What can teachers/professionals do to prevent or respond to online sexual violence?
- Introduction of the CYBERSAFE project and the CYBERSAFE educational programme.
Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, ICDI staff could not travel to Kiev to deliver the training in person. An extensive manual was developed, with all necessary background information on the topic, as well as a mix of interactive exercises to be done individually or in groups. This manual was used by LSHI to deliver the training. Furthermore, ICDI recorded several sessions which were translated and shown to the participants during the training and participated in a live Q&A session via Zoom.
The 23 participants of the training, which included teachers and scout camp leaders, are now equipped with the knowledge and skills, as well as with the materials needed to organise workshops for young people (12-16 years old to raise awareness about online sexual violence. During these workshop young people will learn how to recognize online violence, what to do to protect themselves and others online and what steps they can take if they experience or witness online harm to end the situation. Parts of the CYBERSAFE Toolkit, which ICDI co-developed in one of its other projects, were translated and adapted to Ukrainian language and context and will be used in these workshops.
