Voices against Violence launched by UN Women and Girl Guides

Voices against Violence, a non-formal education curriculum on ending violence against women and girls, has been launched by UN Women and the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS).

Part of the larger WAGGGS campaign, Stop the Violence, Voices against Violence is designed for groups of girls, boys, young women and young men between 5 and 25 years of age. The curriculum provides "tools and expertise to understand the root causes of violence in their communities, to educate and involve their peers and communities to prevent such violence, and to learn about where to access support if they experience violence".

Voices against Violence also provides education on values and norms around gender equality early in life, and provides young people with tools to help challenge gender stereotypes, discrimination and violence. Resources include a handbook for peer educators to support the provision of age-appropriate sessions and non-formal educational activities. It states the curriculum can be adapted to different national contexts and translated into local languages. It aims to reach five million children and young people by 2020.

GirlGuiding New Zealand was involved in piloting the curriculum in 2012. It also participated in training to roll out the curriculum to more girls and young women in the organisation in 2013.

Media:

In the words of Edith Chukwu: I want to see a world free of violence against women and girls, UN Women, 22.04.2015

Innovative "Voices against Violence" curriculum mobilizes efforts to address the pandemic, UN Women, 18.12.2014

Launch of pioneering non-formal curriculum to end violence against women and girls, UN Women, 10.10.2013

Image: Girl Guides Uniform Canada circa 1987 by Girl Guides of Canada. Licence: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)