Background
DBG has provided training based on the Girl SHINE model, which is a curriculum model and resource package that seeks to improve the prevention of, and responses to, violence against adolescent girls in humanitarian settings by providing them with the skills and knowledge to identify types of Gender Based Violence (GBV) and seek appropriate support services as needed. Additionally, Girl SHINE aims to build the social assets of adolescent girls to ensure they have someone they can turn to if they experience or are threatened by GBV. The target beneficiaries of the training were young adolescent girls aged 10-14 (VYA) and older adolescents aged 15-19 (OA), which are considered to be a key gap in existing gender-based targeting in Somalia.
Training undertaken
The Girl Shine resource package is presented in four parts. In this girl shine curriculum training, the focus was on part two, which consists of six core topic areas that cover the knowledge, skills, and assets necessary to decrease risk and increase safety for girls. The six core topics were:
- Trust – This module helps lay the foundation to addressing some immediate issues related to safety.
- Social & Emotional Skills – This module provides the foundation for building girls’ positive sense of self and their ability to successfully interact with each other and their communities.
- Health & Hygiene – This module gives girls the opportunity to learn critical information related to their bodies, during a period when they are going through significant changes. They can explore issues related to hygiene, puberty, and sexual health in a safe space, where they are provided accurate information.
- Safety – This module focuses on the concepts and skills girls need for preventing, mitigating, and responding to GBV.
- Solidarity – This module helps girls to start preparing and strengthening their support networks so that they will continue to nurture the skills they have learned and their support network once the life skills curriculum finishes.
- Visioning – This module is designed to strengthen the social and emotional skills related to perseverance, as well as to create hope and support girls in concrete planning for their futures.
Delivery Methodology
The training was delivered in fifteen sessions for 3 months from November 2022 to January 2023, targeting forty young and old adolescence girls selected from the IDP camps of Qoraxey and Arafad IDP in South Galkio. The training was conducted by one facilitator and one mentor at each camp. The facilitators and mentors were all females, trained on the curriculum and selected from the respective target IDP camps.
A pretest at the onset of the training and post test after the completion of the curriculum were adminstered to gauge the change in their level of knowledge and awareness about the delivered sessions. A graduation ceremony event was held at the camps to celebrating this important point in students’ lives of having the achievement to complete the curriculum of the Girls Shine Model. It was also intended to mark the importance of the awareness and knowledge they have gained from the sessions so that it can further enforce for them to demonstrate it in their daily behavior. Certificates of completion were awarded at the function to the girls in testimony of having completed the Girl SHINE model curriculum.