School Talk: James Cook University & Chung Cheng High School (Main)

Held on March 27, the school talk presented to tertiary students at James Cook University was well-received by the campus despite the relatively small turn-out. With school talk presenters; Poornima Hatti & Jasmeet Walia focusing on women’s issues here in Singapore as well as touching on those around the world, students gave their full attention to the information presented.

 

The presentation began with a brief introduction of the work that UNIFEM does & what UNIFEM Singapore efforts are locally. Issues such as domestic violence either verbally or physically were discussed. Coupled with recent local newspaper articles & staggering statistics about violence against women in Asia (mainly in Singapore & Malaysia), students were exposed to the gloomy condition that victims of violence had to endure. Coincidently, the majority of the abuse cases featured on the newspaper articles is of domestic workers either from Indonesia, the Philippines or Sri Lanka. The students’ awareness was critical in gaining their understanding on these issues.




Poornima presenting an overview of UNIFEM and its programmes

 

Because such issues were local, the students felt more connected to the struggle & challenges that Asian women face in their daily lives – in terms of verbal or physical abuse; either from their friends, relationship partners or even their relatives. Taking this opportunity, the presenters engaged the students in a discussion about the issues mentioned at the end of the school talk presentation. Their fervent attitude towards trying to find a solution to these problems was apparent.

 

The active discussion that took place afterwards enabled the exchange of ideas among the students & the presenters. They provided insights & ways that the youth can help to lessen such problems. These included volunteering a couple of hours a week with a local NGO dealing with such issues, informing their friends & family about the situations women face or even exploring their own interest in these issues be it in research or engaging in active dialogue with like-minded individuals.



              

Jasmeet Walia presenting case studies of victims of abuse


Ideally, these are the mind-set that UNIFEM Singapore hoped to achieve with these school talk presentations.

 

In addition, the “Say NO to Violence against Women” campaign was introduced. Signatures were collected to gather support for the campaign that advocated for vigorous changes in its objective to eliminate violence against women; through the disbursements of funds from the UN Foundation to the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women.

 

To summarize, the school talk presentation was closed with a short video of the issues discussed. It was, indeed an encouraging school talk session that will fuel us to further develop the school talk series in 2008.



 
Chung Cheng High School students at a UNIFEM School Talk Q & A session
conducted by volunteer presenter Deepa Pillai

Presented to Secondary 3 students of Chung Cheng High School (Main), the school talk that took place on January 21 was UNIFEM Singapore’s first school talk for 2008.

 

An overwhelming 450 students gathered at the school’s hall to attend the presentation by Deepa Pillai & Poornima Hatti. To familiarize the students with UNIFEM Singapore, a brief introduction was provided and followed with topics of abuse present in Singapore and in the Southeast Asia region.
                    

A short quiz on the staggering statistics of abuse cases in Singapore & those from around the world offered additional information on the severity of the violence against women. Thus, it was essential for the students to realise how these issues can devastate family structures & subsequently the challenges that follow. This is especially evident in cases of family violence where mothers succumb to the verbal or physical abuse from their husbands. Consequently children become affected and it can be a daunting time for them to overcome such issues.

 

UNIFEM Singapore appreciated the opportunity given to us by schools for our School Talk Series that will enable us to introduce issues that women face. We certainly encourage the participation of secondary and tertiary schools to get involved with us for the School Talk Series this year in 2008. We look forward to the thought-provoking discussions that might entail after the schools talk presentations. It is our main objective to raise awareness on the challenges and struggles that women tend to face in their daily lives – be it here or around the world; to the youth in Singapore.




Article Written by: Azliza Asri
Photos Courtesy of: UNIFEM Singapore

Submitted by unifem on Fri, 2008-04-04 08:41.