Arpan launched the Personal Safety Education (PSE) kit for Class I-VI, on 1st December at YB Chavan Centre, Mumbai. The Kit is available in English, Hindi and Marathi.
The Personal Safety Education Training Kit is a culmination of Arpan’s years of understanding and experience of helping prevent child sexual abuse by increasing help seeking behavior amongst children and making adults aware of their role in keeping children safe. It is a feature rich set of tools and instructional guides to help Teachers, NGO professionals, Counselors and other individuals to teach children Personal Safety skills. This Kit will help School Authorities, Government and Institutional caregivers to spread the message of Safety to children, parents, teachers and the community at large, thus safeguarding children from sexual abuse.
Arpan’s flagship programme, the Personal Safety Education, aims at teaching children personal safety skills in schools, institutions and communities so that they can identify unsafe situations and seek help. It also empowers teachers, parents and adults with the appropriate knowledge, attitude and skills to prevent and deal with child sexual abuse and create a safe environment for children.
Arpan also launched a video about it's Personal Safety Education Programme at the Event. You can watch it here.
At the event, Arpan organized a Children's panel to hear what they had to say regarding the Personal Safety Education Programme. One of the children observed "On birthdays, girls would wear one piece dresses and come to school. Earlier the boys would pass comments and remarks at the girls, but after the PSE sessions the teasing stopped." Another student from grade 7 said "We should all have a PSE teacher in school so that we can know who to reach out to anytime."
Arpan's supporters and donors were invited on stage to speak about their association with Arpan and their experiences. Sonjoy Chatterjee, CEO, Goldman Sachs India had this to say "It (Child Sexual Abuse) must be very difficult to bear on a day to day basis. That is the most important thing Arpan is helping achieve. Arpan looks at everybody in a very special way and helps create this feeling of comfort to bring about a change in emotions for a positive, better, fulfilling life."
Achama Matthew, CEO, Bombay Cambridge Gurukul Schools shared "If Arpan hadn't walked in, I dont think BCG would be so concious and aware of what it means in terms of keeping children safe. And our reach has not just been the children, all our staff, parents which would probably mean almost 25,000 families. We are proud that Arpan walked in and we sustained our relationship with Arpan."
Principals from schools who conducted the Personal Safety Education Programme were also invited to share their views and challenges about the programme and key takeaways about its impact. One of the principals shared " I feel children (who underwent PSE) have very high self esteem, they can express themselves very openly. I think that is a big achievement, not only from a point of view of abuse but all walks of life. They are aware that they can share their feelings openly and there are ways and means to get help when needed."
To get access to a Personal Safety Education Training Kit please write to us at resources[at]arpan[dot]org[dot]in
