So far, 74,000 children have been included in the "Don't Touch Me" campaign

With the aim of educating children on ways to protect themselves from harassment behaviors in general and sexual in particular, and to promote positive values ​​in children, the Center for Protection and Social Rehabilitation (Aman), under the umbrella of the Qatar Foundation for Social Action, continues to implement the awareness campaign for children "Don't touch me."

The campaign is being conducted for the third consecutive year in Arabic and foreign languages ​​- an awareness campaign against harassment - in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education.The training workshops focus on the practical side, and the use of simplified means to attract the child and attract attention, with emphasis on value education.

"Don't Touch Me" Awareness Bag
Aman Executive Director Dr. Mansour Al-Saadi said that the campaign seeks to implement the recommendations of the Forum of Child Mechanisms organized by the Center in October in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education.

Aman is keen on protecting and rehabilitating children and implementing the “Don't Touch Me” campaign on an annual basis and with new ideas and methods that address the child directly to enable him to protect himself, not through his parents, and emulate the child and in line with his way of thinking, Saadi said.

He added that this year is the production of a number of new cartoon awareness films that broadcast direct messages that reduce the risk of harassment of children, as well as the design of the bag "Do not touch me" of the campaign and contains the basic tools used in the implementation of the campaign, such as flash for awareness films and brochure induction For the campaign, the figure of the campaign characters identified the right and wrong touches, and is distributed during the team visits to public and private schools.

The campaign enables the child to protect himself
Amna Al Mahmoud, Head of Preparation and Design at Aman Center, said: “We seek to develop the campaign every year where we witness a high demand for the implementation of the campaign from various schools, which creates a great motivation to create new ideas to present the campaign in an attractive and easy way for the child to understand the message. ".

The center is keen to hold training sessions for the team of the campaign "Do not touch me" with the participation of specialists from members of the center of expertise and competencies - especially in the areas of education and social service - who relied on practical methods to consolidate some concepts such as knowledge of the child the right touch and the wrong touch of his body from any relative or And not accompanying strangers, according to Mahmoud.

In addition, they are sensitized to prevention and response methods, and how to report cases of sexual harassment, by informing parents or a teacher on the campus, or by calling the Aman Center hotline (919), which provides advanced services to receive social protection, advisory and legal services. Psychological and social, or by using the mobile application "Help Me", an electronic application enables the child to report any problem may be exposed.

Protecting children is everyone's responsibility
A number of parents expressed their satisfaction with the implementation of this campaign, and the student's guardian Saud Saqr said, "These campaigns should be continuous throughout the school year and should be carried out from time to time in all schools in the state.

Um Mohammed, a primary school learning resource officer, spoke about the extent to which students benefited from the campaign, noting that she and her classmates formed an internal team at the school to carry out the campaign weekly as part of their annual plan to educate children about prevention of harassment.

Mrs. Hessa Fahd explained that the campaign “Don't Touch Me” has changed the behavior and personality of her son, through the concepts used in the implementation of the campaign was able to strengthen his relationship with himself and others, and increased the rate of interaction with them, and was able to master the skills of self-defense, especially as these skills were applied in a way Play, which contributed to its consolidation in his mind.

Awareness in an interesting and attractive manner
The campaign targets all students in elementary schools and kindergartens, and has so far included 385 schools with more than 74 thousand students.Robota uses a specialist who has been prepared and programmed to contribute to raising awareness in an interesting and attractive manner during interactive live demonstrations where the robot addresses and responds to children, which contributes to Students' enthusiasm increases the level of interaction, and supports the message's arrival, understanding and assimilation.

The campaign began in 2017 and continues for the end of the academic year 2019-2020 with a plan to continue annually.In the first semester of this year, the campaign covered 125 schools, benefiting more than 9000 students.

The Center for Protection and Social Rehabilitation (Aman) also presented the “Don't Touch Me” campaign in several areas such as Qatar Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa), Shafallah Center for Persons with Disabilities, and Al Noor Center for the Blind. In this area, the course focused on direct practical training, where the trainees received a practical training explanation of sign language and how to simulate the deaf.

The campaign conducts a preliminary test for participating children to measure their concept of protection, and then the child plays five educational educational games (practical) through which he is trained on how to protect himself from any sexual harassment may be subjected to.

The plan is to implement this campaign through the provision of a series of events and activities provided by qualified Qatari cadres on the mechanisms of dealing with the child and how to communicate the message in an easy and simplified manner, in addition to the selection of social workers in cooperation with a number of specialized educational trainers, and given the growing demand Schools wishing to hold the campaign for their students The registration link has been activated through the center's website www.aman.org.qa.