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Kenya – Effective Program for Boys & Rape Prevention –No Means No
Curator: Parker Molloy
For years, Kenya has faced an epidemic of sexual assault.
1 in 4 women and girls living in Nairobi have been sexually assaulted.
Schoolgirls were frequently raped by friends and boyfriends. Clothes have been
torn from women's bodies in public.
Here's what they did.
In 2010, the group No Means No Worldwide began offering self-defense
classes to Nairobi schoolgirls, teaching them how to fight back against rape.
In its early stages, the program focused on providing women in the poorest
parts of Kenya with self-defense skills. The program focused on empowering women,
not shaming them.
After launch, program founders worked to develop Your Moment of Truth, a
separate program for boys.
During early No Means No sessions, girls told instructors that the biggest
problems were the boys themselves. The most common attackers were boyfriends.
The program learned that many boys believed it's justifiable to rape girls
who are out alone after dark, wear miniskirts, or are taken on expensive dates.
No Means No developed Your Moment of Truth to highlight life's tough
choices, which, in this case, included whether it's OK to rape someone. The
program was a huge success.
Rape by friends and boyfriends dropped by 20% in schools teaching the Your
Moment of Truth program.
Later this year, the Journal of Interpersonal Violence plans to publish a
study highlighting the positive effect this training has had on boys.
The study found that boys who go through training were more likely to
intervene when witnessing a girl being assaulted, and they were less likely to
verbally harass girls. Additionally, schools featuring this program found that
rape by girls' friends and boyfriends dropped dramatically.
By 2017, every secondary student in Nairobi will undergo assault prevention
training.
By teaching kids when they're young, they're being empowered for the
future. Educating young generations is key in effecting long-term social
change.
In many parts of the world, assault prevention starts and ends with what
women can do to avoid putting themselves in "high-risk" situations.
These are not effective.
Researchers used Kenya's scenario to test the two methods. One group of
women received the No Means No training while the other took a life-skills
class. Girls who received the No Means No training saw a nearly 40% decrease in
rapes in the year following the program. Girls who took the life-skills
offering were raped at the same rate.
Not only is teaching women how to avoid "high-risk" situations
ineffective, but it shifts the blame to the victim for being raped instead of
putting it on the rapist for actually committing the crime.
Committing a crime is a choice, and the No Means No program empowers young
boys to choose not to commit that crime.
.Kenya's approach is proven, and wonderful because it empowers and educates
instead of blaming and shaming.
If there's hope of removing rape from the world, it needs to start with
early education on the topics of consent and assault.