Safety Education Programme in Formal Schools

Overview
CRG conducts sessions in formal schools, spreading awareness among children about their rights, alerting them to ways by which they can protect themselves from different forms of abuse and telling them who they can approach if they need help.

These sessions are given to seventh standard students belonging to schools in and around the coastal belt of North Goa. The sessions are interactive and are conducted with the help of flash cards. At the end of the session each child is given a hand-out encapsulating the contents of the session, as well as emergency telephone numbers they can use in case they are in distress. This programme has been operating for six years and at present sessions are conducted in 30 schools. Recognising the worth of these sessions, the Directorate of Education has addressed a letter to all schools asking them to allot time to CRG to conduct the sessions.

FLiP Clubs
After the sessions conducted in the formal school on the rights of the child, child abuse and prevention of abuse the children are given a feedback form asking them their opinion about the session. They are also asked if they would like to be peer educators, sharing what they have learnt with other children by joining the FLiP club. (FLiP is an acronoym for Friends of Little People). The aim of forming these clubs is to enhance children's participation.

Bal Panchayats
Bal- Panchayat meetings are organised by CRG with the aim of boosting child participation at the village level and to encourage the formation of Village Child Committees as provided for in the Goa Children's Act 2003. During these meetings the FLiP club members get a chance to interact with club members from other schools in their village. They identify the problems they face in the village also proposing possible solutions to the problems. They get an opportunity to interact with their panchayat representatives and voice their concerns.

PTA meetings
Presentations on issues concerning children are organised by CRG during Parents Teachers Association meetings. Topics such as unintentional forms of abuse caused by parents or teachers, prevention of abuse, awareness on paedophilia are covered during these presentations. Sometimes films are shown. The sessions are held in an interactive manner. CRG attends these meeting as and when invited by the schools.