November 19 2006

GCMHP held today a workshop on the occasion of World Day for Prevention of Child Abuse entitled "The Role of School Mediation in Reduction of Violence in Schools" with attendance of 40 school counselors, specialists from the Ministry of Education, and GCMHP professionals. The workshop was held at the Grand Palace hall in Gaza city.

The workshop started with orientation about GCMHP school mediation program in the schools of the Gaza Strip. Then, an overview about the prevailing violence in schools among children, in particularly verbal and psychical violence and abuse, was highlighted by the Ministry of Education representative. The Ministry emphasized the need for increased intervention to reduce abuse and violence directed towards children.

Later, the school mediation program which GCMHP implemented in various schools in the Gaza Strip was analyzed stressing the need for intensifying the mediation program and generalization of it to other schools as the experience was successful in the schools that the mediation program was applied in.

The research team of GCMHP presented the results of the school mediation program indicating that it was a successful experience in terms of reduction of violence in the schools. Such results were supported by the feedback received from school counselors.

At the end of the workshop, many recommendations were highlighted including; involvement of children in the preparation and panning of school mediation project, generalization of the school mediation project to cover all the Gaza Strip schools, involvement of younger children in the project, support of the implemented projects ensuring follow-up, documentation of successful experiences and presenting them to the media, and holding training courses for counselors