November 2018

16 DAYS OF ACTIVISM IN TUZLA CANTON

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In partnership with TPO Foundation, students from primary and secondary schools in Tuzla Canton (TC) organized a series of activities as part of the 16 Days of Activism campaign, under the slogan "Children are our mirror image". One of the conclusions they reached is that it is necessary to put oneself in other person's shoes in order to empathize with them and avoid gender prejudices. The following schools participated in the campaign: Husino, Pasci, Brčanska Malta, Bukinje, Srednja medicinska škola, Srednja elektrotehnička škola, the Public Institution for Education of Individuals with Mental and Physical Disabilities Tuzla and Srednja mješovita škola Gračanica.
The slogan for this year's campaign was "Children are our mirror image". The goal of the 16 Days of Activism campaign is to spread messages of nonviolence and intolerance towards all forms of violence, including violence against children and peer-based violence.
As the triangle of partnership is made by the school community, parents and children, it is important to involve the parents as much as possible in the prevention and reduction of all forms of violence and to strengthen their relationship with their children and their children's teachers.

Teachers in TC organized multiple activities during the 16 Days of Activism campaign, and upper-grade students had many opportunities to explain the negative effects of gender stereotypes and prejudices, gender inequality and discrimination by using their personal experiences. In Pasci Elementary, two 9th-grade female students shared their stories of playing sports which are typically regarded as male (box and soccer). The second interesting example comes from the joint efforts of the Public Institution for Education of Individuals with Mental and Physical Disabilities and students of Srednja elektrotehnička škola Tuzla. The aim of the workshop held on December 10 (Human Rights Day) was to help students recognize ways in which human rights are violated and to develop a sensibility for situations when human rights are threated and to find ways to uphold human rights. Students concluded that it is crucial to know what human rights are protected by domestic and international documents.