BEST PRACTICES SHARED AT NEW DELHI SEMINAR

​The representatives from Samoa Victim Support Group (SVSG) that attended the New Delhi Seminar as part of ‘Breaking the Cycle: Men & Boys Engage to End Violence Against Women’ project have returned home.
 
Franziska Sione and Mane Su’a have returned with improved knowledge on engaging men and boys as a solution to ending violence against women.  
 
For 12 months since January 2019, the 5 international organisations lead by the Centro Rural Joven Vida (CERUJOVI) in Spain, the Youths First in Madagascar, the Center of Health and Social Justice in India, the Emancipator in Netherlands and the Samoa Victim Support Group in Samoa, will gather in 5 different locations to brainstorm, to learn from each organsiation’s experience, to draw up advocacy tool kits and to visit places where the engaging men and boys concept is being practiced.
 
For Franziska and Mane, they were both overwhelmed by the practicality of the best practices adopted by each of the 5 organsations represented at the Seminar.  From grassroot advocacy to changing masculinity views to recruiting men of change, these best practices are effective when blended in well within the local context.
 
The SVSG Youth Empowerment Program with the young offenders referred from the Youth Court was highlighted during the SVSG presentation of best practices. According to Franziska who is also the SVSG Junior Coordiantor, “it is amazing how a best practice from a small island such as Samoa, captured the attention of the organisations from well developed countries such as India, Netherlands, Spain, and Madagascar (and vice versa).”
 
The next gathering of the project team for the ‘Breaking the Cycle: Men & Boys Engage to End Violence Against Women’ project will during a Study Visit in the Netherlands in May 2019.
 
But before then, Franziska and Mane have a lot of work cut out for them, to ensure that the knowledge and the best practices shared during the New Delhi Seminar is well incorporated in SVSG’s program to end violence against women.