Stopping the Violence

In the small, half-island nation of Timor-Leste, children regularly experience violence at school: in a 2006 study, it was found that “two-thirds of children reported teachers beating them with a stick and almost four out of every ten children reported teachers slapping them in the face” (Speak Nicely to Me, UNICEF and Plan International, 2006). In order to address this gross violation of children’s right to a safe education that respects their dignity, Ba Futuru began the Strengthening Peace in the Lives of Children: Stopping the Violence project – also known as Peace Schools. Since January 2011, Ba Futuru has trained 249 teachers and more than 1,200 students in Timor-Leste in child rights, child protection, positive (non-violent) discipline and positive behaviour reinforcement.

This year, Peace Schools is strengthening non-violent discipline and effective teaching practices in four Timorese high schools in the capital Dili and the remote town of Lospalos. We are training teachers in child protection and positive discipline, and participatory and effective teaching skills; and we are reaching students through theatre performances and publications about their rights and responsibilities, abuse and protection services. Together with these school communities, we are creating safer and healthier educational environments for young people in Timor-Leste.

From July to September, the Peace Schools project has achieved the following:

• various one-day training sessions for 25 Ba Futuru facilitators in participatory teaching methods and positive behaviour reinforcement
• focus group interviews with more than 50 students from the four target schools about their attitudes to schooling, experience of violence in the classroom, and their understanding of abuse, rights and responsibilities
• continuation of monthly meetings to support the development of teachers’ skills in positive (non-violent) discipline and effective teaching
• in-classroom mentoring of fifteen teachers in the four schools, including planning, observation and debrief sessions with each teacher. These sessions provided a valuable opportunity for Ba Futuru staff to observe the implementation of teachers’ new skills, and for teachers to receive individual feedback and support, many for the first time in their teaching careers.
• theatre performances and the distribution of posters and information booklets about abuse, where to get help, and children’s rights and responsibilities, reaching more than 1,500 students across the four target schools

The theatre performances featured Ba Futuru’s female peacebuilding superhero, Feto Fantastiku (Fantastic Woman) and a cast of students, who discussed their experiences of abuse and violence, and shared information on where victims can find assistance locally. This information was reinforced through the distribution of posters and pocket-sized information booklets containing definitions of abuse, and contact numbers for support services in the region of each school. Ninety percent (90%) of the surveyed students said they “liked” or “really liked” the performance, and more than half (59%) were able to name three or all of the four types of abuse discussed in the play, showing that it was an effective way of sharing important information to help young Timorese protect themselves from abuse and mistreatment.

Thanks to your generous donation, Ba Futuru’s work in this vital area continues.

To become a Member of Ba Futuru, or for more information about our work, contact bafuturu@bafuturu.org. 

Since January 2011, the Strengthening Peace in the Lives of Children project has been equipping Timorese teachers with the skills and knowledge to be child protection advocates and to replace violent physical punishment with a positive learning environment. Since January 2013, Ba Futuru has held four teacher trainings in the capital, Dili, and the remote eastern town of Lospalos.  Eighty nine high school teachers participated in the trainings, which achieved very positive results:

• In the pre-training evaluation just 48% of participants could list at least four child rights. But after the training, all of the participants could list at least four child rights.
• In the pre-training evaluation, just 6% of participants could list four types of abuse, but after the training 87% of participants could do this.

Following the Child Protection and Positive Discipline training in Lospalos, Teacher Sudaryatin from High School No.1 in Lospalos said:  “I have learned many things from this training, such as how to manage the classroom and how to give praise to students. (…) Personally, I feel that this topic was very valuable for me as a teacher, because if I reflect on my own behaviour, I realise that I myself have abused students.  This training has helped me to not use physical and emotional violence against students anymore in the future, but rather to use positive discipline that I learned about in the training.”

In addition to the teacher trainings, an internal training for 24 Ba Futuru training facilitators was held in April which covered the new content in the updated Child Protection and Positive Discipline training manual. The knowledge and skills shared in this training will indirectly impact hundreds more beneficiaries across Ba Futuru’s nine current projects. Rosa Martins, a project coordinator for Ba Futuru’s High Schools Transformation Project, said:

“I really appreciated learning the information about positive behaviour management and the legal framework. In my own experience, I have tended to focus on how to respond well to bad behaviour, rather than reinforcing a child’s good behaviour. Even though I am a Ba Futuru facilitator, my understanding of the laws for child protection still isn’t very strong. This training has helped me gain more knowledge in this area.  And not only about this, but also about many topics which I am now ready to implement myself with participants that I meet and train in the future.”

Following the 3-day trainings with teachers in April and May, monthly meetings began in Dili and Lospalos, providing ongoing mentoring and support to 20 teachers across the two locations. At the meetings, additional positive discipline strategies are introduced, practised and discussed, and teachers have the opportunity to share the successes and challenges of their use of positive discipline in the classroom.

To extend the project’s reach to students in the target schools, Ba Futuru will develop a theatre performance about positive discipline and child protection which will be performed at each of the four target high schools in Dili and Lospalos in the coming months. The theatre performance will be accompanied by posters and reference booklets available at the schools, ensuring that important information about support services and basic rights are available to more than 3,000 students, as well as their teachers and families.

Thanks to your generous donations, Ba Futuru’s work continues to benefit students and teachers in Timor-Leste.

To become a Member of Ba Futuru, or for more information about our work, contact bafuturu@bafuturu.org.