Learn Without Fear: Plan's Global Campaign to End Violence in Schools Campaign Progress Report

This report summarises the work carried out by Plan campaigners across 60 countries during the first year of Learn Without Fear, a global campaign launched in October 2008 in an effort to end violence against children in schools. As part of the campaign, each Plan office is tackling the aspects of school violence that are of greatest importance to children in that particular country. All projects share a commitment to Plan's child-centred community development model, a rights-based approach in which children, families, and communities are given the guidance and opportunity to work with others as active and leading participants in their own development. The first year of campaigning, as detailed in the report, involved an effort to focus on research, involve children, and engage governments to recognise how serious the problem is and to make legislative improvements.

This report is based on a monitoring and evaluation questionnaire and 2 pilot projects. It has 7 sections. The first 3 show progress in Plan's 3 campaign goals:

1. Goal 1 - Improving laws: Selected communication-related example: In Sierra Leone, Plan raised awareness of the issue of violence in schools through a range of media and with various community groups and created an environment where people felt able to broach difficult subjects. This culminated in a mass protest in Moyambo involving thousands of children, parents, and teachers demanding an end to abuse in schools and accountability in the case of a young girl who died following a sexual relationship with her teacher and a subsequent abortion.
2. Goal 2 - Recognising the scale and severity and ensuring appropriate care: Selected communication-related example: Plan Togo and a host of partners, including mobile and telephone companies and other international non-governmental organisations (INGOs), set up a pilot child helpline. Launched by government ministers, the helpline is called Allo 111 and will give children access to 27 trained counsellors. If successful, the helpline will be rolled out across the whole country.
3. Goal 3 - Children and adults respect and promote the right to a violence-free school: Selected communication-related examples: (i) Plan Germany published a peer-to-peer manual on tackling school violence. The project involved over 275 young people from Tanzania, Uganda, Colombia, Ecuador, India, the Philippines, and Germany who came together to develop and produce the manual, which contains practical exercises and perspectives from around the world. The manual looks at violence in schools from a gender perspective and discusses ways of identifying and tackling these issues. (ii) Youth from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam teamed up with arts and media personalities to raise their voices against violence in schools. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva of Thailand answered young people's questions on Twitter, demonstrating how social media can be used to spread a message to the world. (iii) Plan Brazil has secured the endorsement of the São Paulo Football Club. Players and directors at the club came together to pledge their support to the campaign. The players will take part in public events over the football season to highlight and support Learn Without Fear.

The fourth section of the report shows evidence of Plan's campaign efforts, and the fifth explains how the effects of the campaign will be measured. Since Learn Without Fear is not only taking place in the southern hemisphere, the sixth section lists key strategies and activities implemented by Plan campaigners in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. The final section summarises key lessons and next steps.

In short, the research found that Plan's child-centred approach has had a positive impact: "The campaign has given children a voice via an innovative, anonymous and child-sensitive questionnaire that enabled pupils to speak up for themselves." However, the evaluation found that, in order to reach their full potential, laws and policies demand the commitment of key stakeholders, including representatives from children's organisations, national governments, police forces, judicial and health sectors, teachers' unions, INGOs, United Nations (UN) bodies, and the media.