- the rights of children who are the main beneficiaries, the right to life, to health, etc.
- international, regional, and national legal instruments
- behavior that a young girl must adopt at school: seriousness, control her speech, analysis of the compliments that teachers often give, dress decently, and work hard to avoid being caught in the trap in case of failure.
The second day was focused on innovations in the new family code, integrating elements of promotion of women’s rights. For example: the abolition of marital authorization before starting working, the prohibition of marriages of underage girls with or without their consent, the agreement between the two spouses for all decisions that contribute to the well-being of their home.
The training emphasized on the 16 forms of sexual violence punishable by Congolese law. This will allow the girls to identify and report cases.
Considering the relevance and the interest produced by the subject, some girls raised their concerned about the constraints or obstacles which are at the source of certain weaknesses and, unfortunately, play against them.
Some testimonies from participants:
First testimony: “Sometimes we have no choice when we see a failure in a main course ‘, explains a student from 3rd grade. Sometime, girls give themselves to teachers to get good grades because they fear the reaction from their parents who are working hard to pay school fees”.
Another testimony: “she is aware of many cases of sexual violence that affect girls beyond even the school environment, but the most recent case that shocked her is a physical violence that opposed a teacher and a student. The teacher beat her up, she fell unconscious. But she was not aware of her rights (Concerning GBV), she didn’t do anything because of lack of information. Now, we know our rights and the whole process on how to report”
For the success of the project, all trained girls declared this: “After this training, we have mastered the different forms of recurrent sexual violence in schools and promise our commitment to sensitize others and to identify any form of violence and denounce cases within our school ”
This project, executed by the Fund for Congolese Women with the support of UNTRUST, which aims to reduce and prevent sexual violence, is carried out in 10 provinces of the DRC including North Kivu, South Kivu, Kasai central, Kasai oriental , Haut-uélé , ituri, tanganyika, maniema, and kinshasa
