“Consent Classes” — Kenya’s Unique Approach to Rape Prevention

Recently, I saw a video on Facebook, regarding the amazing initiative taken up by the schools in Nairobi, Kenya. They were educating boys and girls about consent, respecting women from an early age, masculinity ,and sexual harassment. This was one of the very few videos in recent times, which connected with me so profoundly and led me to research more about it.

For years Kenya has faced an epidemic of sexual assault. Statistics show that 1 in 4 women have been raped/sexually abused every single year. Schoolgirls have been frequently raped by friends or boyfriends. And clothes have been torn in public for many of the girls/women.

By teaching kids when they’re young, they’re being empowered for the future. Educating young generations is key in effecting long-term social change.

This is What They Did

In times when sexual education was looked down upon, rape prevention organization No Means No Worldwide began offering self-defense classes to Nairobi schoolgirls in 2010, as part of their quasi-experimental and randomized control trials, teaching them how to fight back against rape and about consent.

In its early stages, the program focused on providing women in the poorest parts of Kenya with self-defense skills with its focus solely on empowering them. During early No Means No sessions, girls told instructors that the biggest problems were the boys themselves. The most common attackers were boyfriends.

After its launch, the program founders worked to develop Your Moment of Truth, a separate program for boys. The program learned that many boys believed it’s justifiable to rape girls who are out alone after dark, wear miniskirts, or are taken on expensive dates. It took only 6 sessions for this mentality to start changing.

No Means No developed Your Moment of Truth to highlight life’s tough choices, which, in this case, included whether it’s OK to rape someone. The program was a huge success.

If they say boys are actually the problem, the boys can actually be a part of the solution — Collins Omondi, Your Moment of Truth

This program has led to a change of thousands of mindsets in the past 10 years and has reduced the rapes by 51%. Furthermore, this has also increased the rate of boys intervening in harassment from 26% all the way to 74%. The statistics really speak for themselves.

The Process

The instructors are trained by the organization and placed in high-risk schools to teach students between the age of 10 and 20. Through interactive verbal skills, role-playing ,and physical training, both girls and boys are empowered and encouraged to create a culture of mutual respect.

Girls are taught how to say ‘no’ in times of risks and talk their way out of trouble. If these don’t work, they are also taught self-defense skills to protect themselves which has led to a tremendous increase in their self confidence.

One 12-year-old participant said the skills she learned have given her the confidence to act against sexual assault in her daily life. She said:

“When I’m walking home from school, sometimes men will try and stop me and touch me,” she said. “And now ever since [the course], I have pushed them off me, or I run away. I don’t freeze up anymore.”

Boys are taught the concept of positive masculinity where they learn to challenge rape myths, ask for consent, accept rejection ,and intervene if they anticipate or witness predatory behavior. In a world full of casual misogyny and sexism, the effect this had on the boys is extremely impressive.

Catherine Maternowska, Child Protection Specialist at the Unicef Office of Research-Innocenti says of the program:

“What No Means No Worldwide is proving through its sexual assault intervention is that you don’t need to build 142 police stations, like they did in Tanzania, for millions of dollars. What you need to do is build training capacity in human beings and then train kids to use what’s already within themselves.”

Summary

Many traditional approaches to assault prevention across the world solely focuses on what the girls/women can do to put themselves out of risky situations. This approach is neither positive nor effective since it considers women as “victims” and places the blame on them instead of individual perpetrating the crime.

The No Means No organization has paved a positive way ahead for changing the mindset regarding sexual assault and inculcating respect in boys for women. They have also set an example for other countries to carry this out in their own schools and imbibe it in their curriculum.

Women have been a target of sexual violence for so many years. It’s high time the countries acted upon it to actually bring upon some change.

Originally published here