The Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies is a partner to a project coordinated by the City of Modena, Italy entitled Perspective: Peer Education Roots for School Pupils to Enhance Consciousness of Tackling and Impeding Women Violence in Europe, and funded by the European Commission Daphne III Programme.

Other partners to the project include Centro Documentazione Donna (Italy); UNIFCEF (Italy); the Province of Alicante (Spain); European Anti-violence Network- EAVN (Greece); Mediterranean Institute of Gender studies – MIGS (Cyprus); Strategy Transnational (Germany); Cap Sciences Humaines (Belgium).

The project contributes to the overall aim of reducing and preventing the violence perpetrated against women. The specific objective of the project is to raise young people’s awareness on gender violence and to propose emotional and relationship models based on the mutual respect between genders, thus preventing the perpetration of the violence in the future.

The specific objectives of the project are the following:

• To raise the awareness of young people in secondary school on gender-based violence;
• To promote healthy relationship models that are based on mutual respect among young people;
• To test and evaluate a ‘peer education’ approach in the prevention of gender-based violence by promoting young people’s direct involvement in the issues that affect their relationships;
• To strengthen adolescents’ active participation in the elaboration of key messages to be used in an information campaign which will address their peers;
• To overcome the perception of gender-based violence as a private matter and instead to report it as a public social problem that needs to be addressed;
• To foster the role of local authorities, private non profit organizations and schools in dealing with awareness raising activities on the prevention of gender-based violence in order to reduce its long-term social costs;
• To strengthen the educational role of schools in promoting relationships based on the values of tolerance, respect and equality.

The main activities of the project are:

• A mapping of gender-based violence among young people in the partner countries;
• A public seminar entitled Prevention of Gender-based Violence among Adolescents in Cyprus and Europe: Research and Educational Practices.
• The organization of ‘peer education’ activities in secondary schools with aim to promote awareness among youth on gender-based violence;
• Implementation of an awareness raising campaign which will use the key messages elaborated by students during the ‘peer education’ activities and which will be addressed to students and the general public;
• Drafting of guidelines for teachers and youth workers on how to replicate the ‘peer education’ activities in their own contexts in both formal and non-formal education. These guidelines will be disseminated widely.

For more information please contact Georgina Christou at georgina@medinstgenderstudies.org.