Sudan Vision Daily News Paper Official Website - The 16 Days of Activism Campaign for 2008

Edited by Alula Berhe Kidani
The Plan for the 2008 campaign on the 16 Days of Activism was put to ensure synergism of an interagency coordinated efforts, innovative approach, diversity of activities, as wide as coverage in West Darfur State as possible. The notion kept throughout discussions is to ensure "Sustainable Efforts and Support" that will continue throughout the year.

In preparation for the campaign, several campaign-specific meetings were held within the GBV WG, and with the main stakeholders (The Wali Office, The Wali Advisor Office on Women and Child Affairs including VAW Unit, the Ministry of Social Welfare & Information, The State Committee on Combating Violence Against Women, the Ministry of Education, the Religious Irshad and Efta'a (Information dissemination and Islamic directive), as well as NNGOs and INGOs.
Along this action, the achievements have been as per the following:
* To coordinate, scale up, and to ensure non duplicated widely covering activities, a calendar was developed and compiled by UNFPA and shared with all concerned agencies. The calendar helped much in providing a full picture on the comprehensive approaches adopted by different agencies, and enables for tracing different actions carried out on each day of the 16 days of the campaign.
* The campaign was officially started in by a well organized opening ceremony on the 25Th of November in which the Wali, the Chair of the Legislative Council, The Wali Advisor on Women and child affairs, and other officials had participated. Beyond the well known conventional opening rituals, the main aim of the activity was to ensure the renewal of commitment of the State Officials and concerned bodies towards ending violence against women, and to reaffirm a sustained commitment and continued efforts to eliminate violence against women. The ceremony included speeches by the Wali, the Wali advisor, UNFPA and a woman from an IDP Camp, as well as cultural activities including songs and theatrical sketch with messages on gender based violence . Three women who were known with their hard work over many years in support to women cause and rights were identified and selected based on thorough evaluation done before the ceremony, were called upon and offered appreciation present ( Plaque). (see photos 1-3). The ceremony was organized by the Wali Advisor and sponsored by UNFPA.
* In targeting the most influential figures in the community, a dialogue and discussion with the Imams of the Mosques was aimed at. Therefore, it was agreed with the director of the Religious Irshad and Ifta'a to hold a workshop for the Imams with the theme "Role of the Imams in Ending Violence Against Women & Women Protection and Rights In Islam". A Total of 23 Imams participated in an interactive discussions on how women are highly valued in Islam, the need to protect them, to respect their dignity, and to end violence against them. The most important agreed upon outcome was the commitment of the Imams, and stemming from their strong faith that they will use every opportunity they come in contact with the community to advocate for women protection and respect and calling upon ending violence against women especially during the weekly speech they make( Friday prayers Khutbah). Also, it was agreed that the first Friday prayer speech during the campaign (28 November) the involved Imams will tackle the issue of violence against women in their speeches. The feed back we received from prayers in different mosques in the area confirmed this action. UNFPA and the Department of Irshad mutually agreed to scale up similar activities for the Imams elsewhere to cover as much of the Imams as possible in the WD State.
* Towards reaching a huge and quite important sector of the community, the school students were put as an extremely important sector to be covered. Accordingly, a series of meetings were held with the Ministry of Education Officials (the Director General and Directors of different departments).
1. UNFPA (in Collaboration with the Wali advisor on Women and Child Affairs) requested the MOE approval and endorsement to devote the first session in all classes in all schools of West Darfur State for talks and awareness raising on the need to "Ending Violence Against Women". An official circular on this then was approved by the MOE, and distributed to all localities.
2. A group of appropriate messages were developed by UNFPA and the Wali advisor, and the 2 page sheet was photocopied and sent to the MOE department in the 13 localities who in turn distributed it to all schools in their respective locality. A total of 997schools at the state level were estimated to be covered with this activity. This is an extraordinary achievement that will be remembered, whereby hundreds of thousands of students were reached at the same time with the same messages in 13 Locality of West Darfur State calling for ending violence against women and children, with almost no cost.
3. Direct involvement of secondary schools students (girls and boys) was also targeted as a powerful tool of imparting appropriate information on gender and gender based violence against women and children. On 27th and 30th of November, 4 secondary schools (Alfarooq, Alsafwa, Eltijariyah and Ashate' secondary schools) were involved in cultural (traditional songs and plays)and volleyball competition with the teams wearing T shirts calling for "No Violence Against Women". In the two days activity, there was an ample chance for UNFPA to advocate and vocalize the basis of GBV and the religious position in support to girls and women, and to elaborate on the importance of, and rights of girls education, ending inequalities and harmful practices like FGC, This was carried out in an enthusiastic quite friendly interactive atmosphere for which the students clapped long (both boys and Girls) to UNFPA call to stop violence against girls and women. UNICEF kindly contribution by their participation and providing educational and sport kits, which was highly appreciated by UNFPA and the MOE.

4. For a more sustainable effort, and in agreement with the MOE, 25 female and male teachers who teach in primary and secondary schools were trained over a 2- day workshop on "The Role of the Teachers & Schools in Ending Violence Against Women", which was run by the GBV team of UNFPA in West Darfur. The workshop was extremely successful, and reflected a substantial commitment of the MOE officials and teachers to assume their significant role in school and community in working within the schools and in the community against gender based violence and harmful practices in their communities. An outstanding achievement was the strongly recommended action of establishing "Pioneer Schools" where the trained teachers plan to develop a violence-free school environment, and bridging their role into the community with a consistent advocacy against gender based discrimination, gender based violence and gender based harmful practices in the community. It was agreed that UNFPA and the MOE will continue discussions and planning for such important activities targeting teachers and students on the long run.
* The important role of theatre was also exploited in the 16 Days of Activism in Geneina in West Darfur. With the stressful living situation the people and students are exposed to, an entertaining and awareness raising approach was believed to have a dual effect on the beneficiaries. Therefore, UNFPA supported the development of theatrical play on gender-based violence, with a positive change of the attitude shown by the players by the end of the play. Thousands people attended the three shows sponsored by UNFPA in different locations in the community of Geneina.
* In support to the State Committee on Combating Violence Against Women role, 2-day training on the Interagency Standing committee (IASC) on Guidelines for Prevention and Response to SGBV in Humanitarian setting was implemented. 25 participants of the state Committee members and focal persons from different institutions participated actively in the training.
* On the International Day on HIV/AIDS, UNFPA contributed in planning and implementing a group of activities carried out on the 1st of December and thereafter. The issue is of direct relation to Sexual Violence.
* The population of the rural community and the IDPs camps were also reached by different awareness raising activities implemented (and will be implemented) in the coming 2 days by the VAW unit through UNFPA support in Hai Riadh and Krenek; Hai Nahdha; Hai ElJabal; Hai Ethawra Shamal; Dakhleyet Attalibat, Ardamata and Krindink 2 IDP camps.
* TBAs awareness raising on GBV was implemented jointly by IMC and UNFPA in Hamediya IDP Camp in Zallingie, and for IMC health Staff and surrounding villages.

* In the remote area of Tandalti, a festival, a marsh and awareness sessions were conducted for the school children, youth, women and men on GBV. The activity was implemented by CAM and sponsored by UNFPA.