The Grassrooted Trust (Guarantee) Ltd

The Grassrooted Trust (Guarantee) Limited was set up to work on gender-based violence (GBV), and on sexual and reproductive health education. The Grassrooted Trust is currently one of few organizations working on Cyber Exploitation and Violence (CEV) prevention in schools in Colombo and Batticaloa and supported the National Child Protection Authority's cyber exploitation prevention education efforts in Vavuniya. We understand CEV to be a manifestation of intimate partner and gender-based violence. We are in collaboration with Women in Need (WIN) to provide a response mechanism that assess incidents, connects with existing redressal mechanisms, and provides legal support and counselling w... read more The Grassrooted Trust (Guarantee) Limited was set up to work on gender-based violence (GBV), and on sexual and reproductive health education. The Grassrooted Trust is currently one of few organizations working on Cyber Exploitation and Violence (CEV) prevention in schools in Colombo and Batticaloa and supported the National Child Protection Authority's cyber exploitation prevention education efforts in Vavuniya. We understand CEV to be a manifestation of intimate partner and gender-based violence. We are in collaboration with Women in Need (WIN) to provide a response mechanism that assess incidents, connects with existing redressal mechanisms, and provides legal support and counselling when necessary. The Grassrooted Trust has also developed an online interactive portal in English, Sinhala, and Tamil on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, including relationships, gender identity and sexual orientation, gender based and intimate partner violence, HIV and STIs, cyber exploitation and violence - the first of its kind in Sri Lanka - www.bakamoono.lk. The Grassrooted Trust has also helped design and implement two age-appropriate relationship education programmes; one in a mainstream boy's school in Mount Lavinia, and another in a mainstream girl's school in Colombo. We also conduct workshops on Gender, Gender Based and Intimate Partner Violence, HIV and STIs, and Cyber Exploitation and Violence, for schools, youth, corporate entities, and community-based organisations. Grassrooted's work in CEV as well as in setting up relationship education programs in schools has included extensive work with parents, teachers, and children in early childhood and pre-school education which is the age group that will be focused on in the study. We have extensive expertise working with children and concerned adults and we are constantly engaged with and understand the context in which they function, including the media they consume. Grassrooted advocates extensively for accurate and comprehensive age-appropriate relationship education interventions for schools, using national statistics; case studies, interviews, testimonies; and evidence gathered during our programmes. This has helped us develop a key understanding of the age group and the stakeholders that will be the focus of the research, including best practices in terms of the approach needed to obtain information and data, as well as access to people and institutions where information can be obtained. Grassrooted has also been a Member of the National Taskforce on Cyber Exploitation, set up by the National Child Protection Authority