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Description
The project responds to the needs and problems reported by girls living in the Podkarpackie Province. It aims at preventing discrimination and violence against girls and strengthening their empowerment. Direct beneficiaries of the project will be 24 girls aged 15-18, and indirect beneficiaries will be residents of the Podkarpackie Province. We will conduct educational and empowering workshops for girls and run an educational camp. We want to prepare the participants to carry out their own educational initiatives, thanks to which the residents will learn what discrimination is, how to counteract it and how to deal with it. Girls aged 15-18 are particularly vulnerable to discrimination, mainly due to a lack of tools (knowledge, skills, self-confidence) to protect oneself against violence. They receive insufficient support from adults and face numerous obstacles, including stereotypes, prejudices and social expectations of what a girl should be like. Another problem is the lack of anti-discrimination education in Polish schools. The need for anti-discrimination activities is expressed by the girls themselves, with whom we have been in touch thanks to our previous projects. In our educational activities we will focus on empowering girls. We will strengthen their sense of independence, develop readiness to establish positive relations with other people and to realize their plans and dreams. As part of the project, the girls will carry out social initiatives aimed at drawing the attention of local communities to the problem of gender discrimination, consolidating the knowledge they have acquired and their sense of empowerment.
Summary of project results
The aim of the project was to counteract discrimination and violence against young girls and to strengthen their subjectivity. The main need for the project was to help the recruited participants develop their social competences, set clear boundaries and cope with the difficulties and inappropriate treatment they have to face on a daily basis.
The project included a package of development activities addressed to 24 participants - teenagers aged 15-18, from the province. Podkarpackie. This was a group that was particularly vulnerable to discrimination due to the lack of tools to deal with violence, stereotypes about young girls, lack of anti-discrimination education in schools (especially in the Podkarpackie Voivodeship) and lack of support from parents or peers.
The project included activities:
1. Workshops (anti-discrimination and herstoric).
The girls deepened their knowledge about discrimination, communication and social competences. The group showed high commitment, and the classes took place in an atmosphere of joy and cooperation. The girls strengthened their bonds and gained new experiences that will help them face difficult situations and adversities in the future.
2. Anti-discrimination camp - 4 days
The girls learned, among other things: what social competences, cooperation, Design Thinking and Storytelling are, but also how to express yourself and your opinion without fear. Courage, sisterhood, self-confidence! - These are the mottos of the camp.
3. Social initiatives
With the support of the tutors, the participants prepared 6 original initiatives related to anti-discrimination.
We managed to reach approximately 340 recipients of the initiatives directly.
The beneficiaries of the project were 25 girls aged 15-18. The recipients of social initiatives also benefited from the activities, including people participating in workshops, photography shows and exhibitions, and followers of the IG profile. The participants, empowered by the project activities, declared that they would initiate and implement further activities in this area and educate their peers.
Institutional development: as part of the activities carried out, we managed to purchase equipment for a mobile workshop room (tent, tables, benches, deckchairs and a heating umbrella), which allows us to conduct various types of initiatives in public space.
Thanks to the implementation of the institutional development plan, we managed to improve our activities and initiatives and thus reach new recipients. Carrying out activities in a newly equipped mobile room significantly increased their level and effectiveness. Additionally, in cooperation with other non-governmental organizations, we managed to develop new management procedures for our organization and implement PSEA.
The effects of the activities significantly exceeded the assumptions and expectations of the project team. The participants showed great interest in the topic of empowerment, i.e. building a sense of strength and independence and the will to control one''s own life. We have also observed that girls have a great need to expand their knowledge in the area of anti-discrimination and how to prevent and respond to violence. The implementation of the project confirmed that anti-discrimination education is needed, that we need to speak out about the problems young girls face, and that there are still cultural patterns that say that girls should behave in a certain way, and boys are allowed to do more.
As a result of the project, the participants experienced:
- increasing knowledge about discrimination and violence based on gender, gender roles, stereotypes, prejudices
- increase in assertiveness
- improving organizational capacity to conduct anti-discrimination initiatives
- increasing the ability to respond to discriminatory and violent behavior
- increasing knowledge about gender stereotypes and roles assigned to girls and women in society
Thanks to participation in the project, girls are able to respond to discrimination and set boundaries, know their rights, and feel more confident and safe.
The achieved effects and results of the project confirm the validity of the project assumptions included in the justification for the project implementation and the correctly selected group (girls aged 15-18 from the Podkarpackie Voivodeship) who needed support and were exposed to discrimination.