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Girls of Im­pact T&T has be­gun its out­reach for 16 Days of Ac­tivism to end Gen­der-based Vi­o­lence by tak­ing the in­ter­na­tion­al theme of dig­i­tal gen­der-based vi­o­lence di­rect­ly in­to schools. The NGO re­cent­ly co-host­ed a pan­el dis­cus­sion and spo­ken-word ses­sion with Form 3 stu­dents at San Juan South Sec­ondary, teach­ing them how cy­ber­bul­ly­ing, non-con­sen­su­al pho­to shar­ing and on­line ha­rass­ment form part of gen­der-based vi­o­lence (GBV).

Founder Reneé Atwell said, giv­en this year’s theme, they thought it fit­ting to vis­it a school.

“We thought with the rise of tech­nol­o­gy, and of course, with tech­nol­o­gy be­ing very promi­nent among our youth, that we will take the cam­paign in­to our schools, and that is how we de­cid­ed to vis­it the San Juan South Sec­ondary School a lit­tle ear­li­er this month to speak with the stu­dents about dig­i­tal gen­der-based vi­o­lence. So, the event at San Juan South Sec­ondary School en­com­passed a pan­el dis­cus­sion with young peo­ple from both Girls of Im­pact as well as The Wil­low Foun­da­tion, which is an­oth­er youth or­gan­i­sa­tion here in Trinidad and To­ba­go, where we re­al­ly looked at what the ef­fects of GBV in on­line spaces were, what GBV in on­line spaces is, and of course, how young peo­ple can re­spond when it hap­pens,” she said.