FundLife Holds Capacity Building on Gender-Based Violence in April

As part of FundLife Leadership Academy: Reach To Teach Project, FundLife organized a two-day Capacity Building on Gender-Based Violence on April 20 and 21, 2024. The training aims to equip those who are directly working with project beneficiaries with knowledge on laws related to gender-based violence (GBV) and raise their awareness on protection issues so they can properly respond to these cases and support their students should these cases happen in the community.  A total of 30 participants from different partner senior high schools, Fundlife Youth Mentors, and Sangguniang Kabataan representatives attended the two-day capacity building.

Ms. July Ruth Martija, a registered social worker at the Municipal Social Welfare Office in  Dulag, Leyte discussed the important points of key laws related to Gender-Based Violence and Anti-Child Labor during the first day of the training. On the second day, attendees participated in different activities such as role play, discrimination blankets, and spider web which allowed them to process the things they have learned during the first day. 

Towards the end of the second day, participants identified the following challenges in schools and community: teenage pregnancy, higher cases of  HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, sexual harassment and sexual abuse, lack of parental guidance, lack of awareness of referral system and people turning a blind eye despite knowing that gender-based violence is happening in the community. To address these challenges, the group recommended to strengthen campaigns, advocacy, and information dissemination on gender-based violence. The importance of capacitating individuals in the barangay level and other agencies who handle GBV and juvenile-related cases was raised, as well as the need to create support groups for survivor-victims and allocating resources to these groups. 

Through the two-day capacity building, participants realized the importance of having a supportive and enabling environment so that victim-survivors of abuse will be encouraged to file a complaint which, for most, is their first brave step towards healing. As for Fundlife, the organization will continue supporting and empowering girls by providing play and learning opportunities which will not only help develop their skills and character but will also hopefully help them realize their dreams.