Sir Brian Bell Foundation is a key Delivery Partner to the ‘Grass Skirt Project’ 10 Million Strong Program. The project educates communities on gender-based violence and to have a more inclusive and safe Papua New Guinea for women and Girls.
The program began on Monday July 10 and will run for 3 months. The goal is to spread the initiative to schools and communities in PNG.
Badihagwa Secondary School in Port Moresby was the starting point. Twenty male and female students were taken through a series of specially developed lessons to identify gender-based violence and its adverse effects and express disapproval towards damaging practices.
The students will be taken through a range of specialty-formulated interactive activities over 14 weeks. The program will introduce new ideas, encourage questioning of outdated beliefs, and help alter harmful attitudes causing violence against women in PNG communities.
Students were given diaries to take notes, track sessions and track their physical activity, improvements, and thoughts about how they position themselves within the community to understand the importance of individual leadership.
This is an essential program for students in PNG as it can allow a more continued commitment to ending GBV in PNG, this is due to data from the Human Rights Watch (2021), a woman is beaten every 30 seconds in PNG and more than 1.5 million people experience gender-based violence in the country each year; 75% of children experience violence at home.