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Description
This project concerns gender-based violence, especially towards girls and young women. The scale of the problem is alarming in Poland - one in three teenage girls have had a distressing sexual experience, and one in ten has been sexually abused. The scale of violence increased rapidly during the pandemic. Teenage girls are in a poor state of mental health, have suicidal thoughts, eating disorders, and depression. Girls with disabilities are especially at risk of violence. This problem is part of the broader social and political context. Since 2015, the government has been actively destroying equality initiatives, taking away their funding, prohibiting lessons on discrimination in schools, announcing withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention on Violence, etc. The Project Promoter will organize WenDo coach training - combating violence, assertiveness, and women’s self-defense - for people working with girls and young women, including people with disabilities To conclude, in a 16-day Campaign against Gender-Based Violence, female participants will conduct diploma workshops – in total eleven WenDo workshops for girls and young women and adult women working with young people, and three supplementary seminars and a networking meeting for all female WenDo coaches. 22 people will participate and gain competencies and qualifications to work as female WenDo coaches. Female WenDo coaches from all over Poland will improve their competencies in working with people with disabilities, get to know each other, and form closer relationships. Ultimately, girls and young women - female participants in WenDo training will benefit - they will learn to set boundaries and the concept of consent, and be better equipped to recognize and react to discrimination and violence. Working with the Icelandic Partner Slagtog, the Project Promoter will go on a study tour providing know-how on prevention of violence towards girls and young women and the WenDo method.
Summary of project results
The project responds to the problem of gender-based violence, especially against girls and young women. The scale of violence in Poland is alarming - one in three teenage girls has had an incriminating sexual experience and one in ten has been sexually abused. One in two female students has experienced sexual harassment (RPO, 2017). During the pandemic, the scale of violence increased dramatically. Teenagers were in poor mental health, with suicidal thoughts, eating disorders and depression. Girls and women with disabilities are particularly vulnerable to violence. The problem was part of a wider socio-political context. From 2015 to 2023, the authorities actively destroyed equality initiatives, depriving them of funding, banning anti-discrimination and sex education in schools, announcing the denunciation of the Istanbul Convention, etc.
As part of the project, the Project Promoter organised and led the Second WenDo Training Academy - assertiveness and self-defence for women, an anti-violence method. Participants of the academy conducted graduation workshops - a total of 12 WenDo workshops for girls and young women and for adult women working with youth. Workshops took place in such cities as Warsaw, Lublin, Szklarska Poręba, Wrocław, Aleksandrów Łódzki, Krakow, Łowicz, Gdynia and Wrocław. A total of 108 people took part in them. A study of the impact of WenDo on the people participating in the workshops was conducted. Networking meetings of WenDo trainers from Poland were also held, as well as open thematic self-learning modules raising knowledge in areas such as working with women with intellectual disabilities, on the autism spectrum, with motor and visual disabilities, with girls, with Deaf women and with hearing disabilities. Thematic materials were also produced - brochures, manuals, guides, films, animations, including: "Let''s silence anti-feminism! A verbal self-defence guide for feminists'', the brochure ''No means no. A guide for women with and without disabilities'', the animation ''No means no! Strategies for feminist self-defence'' and others. The grantee has engaged with national and international networks, coalitions and teams working to address gender-based violence and to take into account the perspective, condition and experiences of women with disabilities - participating in conferences, webinars, media appearances, etc. As part of the cooperation with the Icelandic Partner, Slagtog, the Grantee made two study visits to share its experience in the area of violence prevention against girls and young women and working with the WenDo method, and conducted the first ever WenDo workshop in Iceland for Polish women living there. At the end of the project, a seminar on ''WenDo - feminist self-defence as prevention of violence and its role in the system of counteracting gender-based violence'' was organised, in which a representative of the Partner took part as a speaker.
The Academy was attended by 23 participants, mainly from Poland, but also from Belarus, Ukraine and the Czech Republic, including two Polish Sign Language speakers. The participants gained competences and qualifications to work as WenDo trainers. The second WenDo Training Academy placed particular emphasis on preparing people to work with girls and with people with disabilities. In addition, WenDo trainers from all over Poland developed their skills in working with people with disabilities, got to know each other and strengthened their relationships. Ultimately, the project benefited girls and young women - 108 WenDo trainees - who learnt boundary-setting and consensual concepts in practice, improved their skills in recognising and responding to discrimination and violence. The study of the impact of WenDo on those attending the workshops was the first ever such study in Poland and one of very few in the world. A number of educational materials popularising the work of the WenDo method have also been produced.
Summary of bilateral results
Our partner organisation was Slagtog from Reykjavik, Iceland.People from the organisation at the writing stage of the project had attended a feminist self-defence coaching school. Therefore, as part of the collaboration, we set up to run the first ever WenDo- feminist self-defence workshop in Iceland. The organisation recruited and organised two workshops for Polish women living in Iceland.Organising a WenDo workshop for the first time in Iceland. There is one Polish Anna Marjankowska in the organisation and it was mainly with her that we had contact. After the visit to Iceland, Anna attended and was one of the speakers at a conference representing the results of the WenDo impact study we conducted as part of the project. Anna also developed a material entitled ''Violence against women in Iceland''.After the project ended, we carried out a project from the Regional Programme, in which we also had a partner organisation in Iceland. People from the organisation visited us in Krakow together with people from Slagtog.