Johannesburg Update: Discussing Gender Equality

Skateistan
Jul 27, 2017 · 3 min read
Students taking a break from the classroom during the Youth Week session .

For Youth Week, our Skate and Create program in Johannesburg focused on educating students about issues surrounding gender equality and human rights. Students created a “human rights island” to gain a better understanding of what their rights are, and a “community map” to identify the spaces where they feel safe in the city. Program’s Officer Kelly and Educator Katherine report on the session and the outcome.

Words by Kelly.

The session began with our Educators informing students about their basic human rights, which shocked them as they were not aware of many of them. They shared some of their own experiences and we informed them what was their human rights and what they should report. As well as informing about their rights, the session focused on making our students aware of human right violations that happen around the world and that women are most at risk of being exposed to unfair behaviour. Now that they are better informed about their rights, they said they would speak up and that they understood that how important it is that people are respected and treated equally!

Students had lots to think about and discuss.

To help students put their new knowledge into practice, they were asked to create their own imaginary island and come up their own set of rights and rules. Some common themes amongst the students’ islands included free education, freedom of speech, no fighting, respect for each other, and the right to eat and have fun.

The session ended with our students sharing personal stories with Educators. Their basic rights are often violated but they are too afraid to tell anyone because they know that they will get into trouble or they are too embarrassed. Our Educators encouraged them to speak up and gave them information of places that they could contact and report the matter anonymously.

After the session, students wrote down that they had gained knowledge of basic human rights and how to protect themselves and others. They also wrote that they understood that with rights comes responsibility, and they recognized the need to respect each other.

In the second half of the session, the female students worked on a community mapping exercise where they mapped out the landmarks and important areas of their communities. They discussed which areas were safe and not safe, and whether some areas were only safe for men or for women. Through the discussion, they identified important community services, including clinics, NGOs, youth services, schools, places of worship, and safe parks. They then gave a different colour code to each space — red represented safe spaces for girls, purple represented safe spaces for boys, and brown represented spaces that are safe for both girls and boys. Our students presented their maps to the class and described their favourite places in their neighbourhood.

The girls’ community maps showed that there were many spaces in their community where they did not feel safe. But the girls mentioned that Skateistan, as well as the church, school and home, were the places where they did feel safe. This was due to the fact that most of these spaces had some form of physical safety measure: a locked gate; a security guard; or access card. The session made the girls aware of their own vulnerability within their community which will hopefully lead them to make safer choices when venturing out in the future.

Our Educators gave students a list of the 30 basic human rights to take home and share with at least three people. We are hoping to make more people aware of their basic human rights and, by doing this, we hope to encourage more humans to act on this and keep each other safe from harm.

Find our more about how Skateistan creates safe spaces for children to learn and play worldwide, including at our Skate School in Johannesburg. skateistan.org

Johannesburg

Skateistan offers a safe space for local children to play and learn whether at “Skate School” or Outreach sessions. Every afternoon programs are offered for children aged 5–17 years to join in after school. To take part in skating, creative arts, homework help or career advice.

Skateistan

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Non-profit organization empowering children through skateboarding and education. Find out more and support at skateistan.org.

Johannesburg

Skateistan offers a safe space for local children to play and learn whether at “Skate School” or Outreach sessions. Every afternoon programs are offered for children aged 5–17 years to join in after school. To take part in skating, creative arts, homework help or career advice.

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