Strategic initiatives
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of intervention. Our Strategic Programs support our prevention efforts by raising awareness among whole communities and young girls.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of intervention. Our Strategic Programs support our prevention efforts by raising awareness among whole communities and young girls.
The PeaceMaker Program works both to intervene in cases of violence, and to break the cycle altogether, preventing it from affecting future generations. Strategic Programs support our prevention work, aiming at stopping the cycle of abuse before it starts.
Operation PeaceMaker has two primary Strategic Initiatives: Basti (Community) Meetings and the School Program. Both programs, while aimed at preventing or providing early stage intervention for abuse by equipping communities and school children with knowledge of their rights, also act as a key part of our intervention work. Many of the cases that our PeaceMakers work on come to us through the awareness created in these meetings and workshops. We have ramped up our Strategic Initiatives, so program statistics given below are growing rapidly.
Basti Meetings are community meetings held in order to educate individuals and families on issues like domestic violence, child sexual abuse, human trafficking and gender equality. While our PeaceMaker’s work to bring change within households by supporting victims with Counselling and more, our Basti Meetings seek to help foster a desire for change at the broader, community level. Basti Meetings are organized by PeaceMakers, Counsellors and Centre Coordinators and are carried out in communities in the wider areas surrounding our Counselling Centres. These meetings happen in people’s homes, places of worship, community halls, schools and colleges, and even small road sides.
While most of our Basti Meeting attendees are women, we do also speak to men and boys. For most men and women, it is the first time they have heard that domestic violence is both morally and legally wrong. Many of the cases we receive are a result of the awareness raised through Basti Meetings.
Operation PeaceMaker has developed
workshops specifically for young school girls to educate them on the realities and ways to stay safe from sexual abuse, domestic violence, human trafficking and other forms of harassment and violence. A handful of PeaceMakers have been specially trained to roll out our School Program and run it with the guidance of our Senior Counsellors. This Program promotes gender equality through simple and understandable methods and reinforces that men do not have the right to take an aggressive stance physically, financially or emotionally over women. We discuss the results of marrying too young and have honest conversations about the perils of patriarchal customs such as the dowry system. Through this Program, Operation PeaceMaker aims to prevent future abuse and break current cycles of abuse.
Violence and exploitation will end when we’re all ready to work together. We believe in making friends, and working together!
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