Nairobi Boys Are Being Taught To Protect Girls From Rape, And It’s Really Working

The Ujamaa Africa run programme has been so successful that it's going to be compulsory for every single secondary school child in Nairobi

Nairobi Boys Are Being Taught To Protect Girls From Rape, And It's Really Working

by Stevie Martin |
Published on

In Nairobi, every secondary school child will undergo a six week programme encouraging young boys to intervene and protect their 'sisters' if they see them under attack. And girls are will be taught self defence, and that rape and abuse doesn't have to be a part of their lives.

And going by the success of the trial schools - it's really, really working. The classes for boys (run by Ujamaa Africa, and called 'Your Moment Of Truth) include training - which improves the success of sexual assault interventions by a whopping 185% - and working on their attitudes to women, whereas the girls are being taught to have ownership of their body as well as self defence techniques.

In a recent survey, one in four women and girls in Nairobi's most dangerous slums have been sexually assaulted and around 53% of women in Kenya believe men actually have the right to assault and beat their wives for reasons such as arguing, or going out without informing them. And a lot of the boys start out with negative attitudes, with 80% of them believing that a girl wearing a miniskirt was inviting a boy to have sex with her, but this went down to 30%, according to the charity.

'Our main focus on the curriculum is positive masculinity for the boys, positive empowerment, and actually making them gentlemen on issues to do with the prevention of rape and standing up for the rights of women,' Collins Omondi, who teaches as part of the programme, told Yahoo News. 'If they say the boys are actually the problem, we the boys can be part of the solution'.

'Many boys say they cannot intervene in a situation where a girl is being harassed because they feel they are not confident enough, but you can stand up and say "No. This man is doing something wrong." Out of that, many other people will join hands with you.'

It's a problem of upbringing, with so many young boys and girls witnessing violent fathers and a high level of constant misogyny. 'Their father has been this violent mad, has been beating their mum. It's because of the way they have been brought up,' Omondi explained.

Now, though, there are stories of boys, once they've been through the programme, seeing men dragging young girls into the woods and calling others to join forces and rescue her. Also, rape by boyfriends and friends of girls in schools where the programme was taught dropped from 61% to 49% - still far too high, but it takes time to change a culture that's been so heavily engrained.

One of the teachers at a school that included the Ujamaa project said: 'The girls have become strong. The boys are trying to accept it also. They realise that these are our sisters, we need to help them grow.'

Excuse us while we go have a little cry at how great this is.

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Follow Stevie on Twitter: @5tevieM

This article originally appeared on The Debrief.

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