HYDERABAD – A dissemination meeting with stake holders of the project “What Works to Prevent Violence among and against Children” was held today on August 8th, 2018, in Hyderabad, where three years of research was presented which involved 8000 students of grade 6th to 8th from forty public schools were selected for the study out of which 1752 boys and girls were evaluated. The project was funded by DFID, UK through Medical Research Council of South Africa. The project in Pakistan was implemented by Right to Play, a global NGO and evaluated by Aga Khan University, Karachi-Pakistan.
This pioneer research in Pakistan showed a very clear pattern of behavioral change, when early intervention is made on young minds, research showed remarkable difference of improvement when it comes to peer victimization which reduced by 33% in boys and 59% in girls. Similarly, when it comes to violence and bullying perpetrators, there is also a corresponding reduction by 25% in boys and 56% in girls.
Depression which is still not acknowledged even in adults in Pakistan was also part of the assessment, and the two year intervention showed 7 and 10 percent reduction in boys and girls respectively. Moreover, gender norms and attitudes showed a positive change of 14% in boys and 18% in girls.
Dr. Judith Mcfarlane, Dr. Rachel Jewkes from S. Africa and USA respectively and Dr. Rozina Karmaliani as a principal investigator from AKU, Pakistan highlighted the importance of the project specially in the Pakistan context which is highly patriarchal, developing society where corporal punishment and violence is widespread both in society and at domestic level.
Mr zulfiqar, manager Right to Play highlighted the importance of addressing violence among school children at an early stage through play based learning transformation. The importance was also given on the fact that intolerance and violent behavior has become a norm of our society.
Dr. Rachel informed that 17 projects in 13 countries are being run under global program focusing on violence against women and girls.
Dr. Judith from Texas Women University was the advisor for the project in Pakistan and explained the importance of research strategy and methods.
Dr. Rozina Karmaliani and her team of AKU (Dr, Tazeen, Sayed Ali, Dr Nargis Asad, Shireen Shahzad and Hussain Maqbool) explained that the study have found that Right To Play intervention is effective in reducing violence at schools and home reduced depression plus it brings gender equality among children and improved their mental health by reducing depression. She added that in Pakistan Right To Play has an important contributions to make in building peace and social harmony.
Finding report was also presented to policy makers and other stakeholders in Islamabad on Aug 6th, where prominent experts at the panel reflected on the research and gave their opinion that it’s time we should start looking violence in more holistic way rather just as a crime. They suggested ideas to scale up and institutionalize this intervention and taking it forward by involving teachers, parents and media. Among the panelist were, S AA Akif Cabinet sec government of Pakistan, Khawar Mumtaz from NCSW Dr Anjum Halai of AKU, and Dr Huma Baqai from IBA, moderated by Kausar S Khan of AKU. The stakeholders meeting was concluded by remarks from Nilofer Javaid, education specialist at DFID UK in Pakistan who shared that minority, displaced and disable children are priority as they are most vulnerable for victim of violence.
The Hyderabad dissemination meeting was attended by large number of people involving, officials from Sind education sector, Head Teacher, Students and their parents, members of civil society, different NGO, media, activists and Dr. Mohd, Memon, Chairman Board of Intermediate and Secondary education Hyderabad who was the guest of honor. Dr. Memon, emphasized the need to address it at grass root level, and said this study and its findings are very important for policy makers, educational institutions and society for future interventions on Parents and teachers involvement in peace building.
Ms. Lala Rukh Rafi, education specialist of Right to Play moderated the programs and Mr. Abdul Majeed Bhurt, executive director STEDA and Mr. Qamer Shahid Siddiqui director general PITE, Mr. Syed Rasool Bux, Director school education Hyderabad division and Iqbal Ahmed Memon, additional director school education also spoke on research findings and its importance to scale up at country level.
