Abuse Awareness

Abuse Awareness workshops were back touring elementary schools of Bali for the new 2018/19 academic year, filled with colour, games and fun, but with a very serious message.

Why are Workshops Needed

Bali Children’s Project launched our program of Child Protection workshops back in 2016. It was set up in response reports of child abuse in Bali. Combined with Bali’s cultural setting and taboos, talking about abuse is not always done.

Official figures are low, with 60 reported cases of violence against children in 2016 across the whole of Bali.

Responding and recognising signs of child abuse is not something that is in the public sphere. Parents often do not discuss or consider it a genuine threat, while children are unable to react if needed.

Coupled with this, there is an ongoing lack of understanding of the issues surrounding child protection. Being a taboo subject, it is not something that is discussed in families and schools. Without an understanding, children are often unaware of what abuse is.

Awareness Comes First

Aiming to help children understand and react to signs of abuse, the workshops have been back in full swing for the new school year. Delivering very simple but effective messages, workshops have been designed based on child psychology, making them understandable and engaging.

This results in sessions that whole lot of fun for students, while also learning about taboo subjects.

Running a total of one and a half hours, the workshops are split into bite-size mini sessions. The sessions involve videos, play acting/role play games, song and dance, group work, questions and answers and reading time.

One game involves three volunteers who place cardboard cutout hands on different areas of the body, with the class asked to call out which areas should not be touched.

Students are given their very own booklet,

Growing Program

The workshops were developed thanks to funding provided by The Mel Wolf Foundation and first started as a pilot project. Continuing their funding through to 2018, and thanks to additional support from Lucky Number 9, Bali Children’s Project now employ a program manager and program assistant to deliver the sessions every week.

From the pilot project of 24 workshops in 2016, the ambitious 2018 program is delivering 150 workshop days to 10,500 elementary students.

Since launching, Bali Children’s Project has been inundated with requests from schools to run the workshop. Our aims for 2019 are to continue the program at last on the same level, and potentially increase the numbers of workshops if additional funding can be secured.

If you would like to support our 2019 Child Protection Program, please get in touch.

A relatively new program, we are still seeking funds to continue the program in the long term. Our annual budget for this program is currently 12,000 USD.

If you would like to support our child abuse awareness program, you will be helping us to reach over 10,000 students per year, funding our staff to do so and awareness booklets for each student.