"Escolas ON, Violências OFF"

Technology-facilitated gender-based violence disproportionately affects girls and women in Brazil, especially school-age girls. In Brazil, 60% of online violence victims were between 13 and 25 years old. About 75% of victims were girls and women, and 45% were students.

In the school environment, this violence is noticeable: 1 in every 2 teachers reported having seen their female students go through situations of digital violence, such as malicious comments about their photos, non-consensual sharing of intimate images, creation of fake profiles to humiliate them, or abusive messages sent through social media. In addition, 29% of teachers also said they felt unprepared or only slightly prepared to address gender-based violence against girls and women with their students.

In this scenario, Serenas was invited by the Presidency’s Secretariat of Social Communication to develop a course on the issue, with the goal of qualifying education professionals with knowledge and strategies to protect girls and promote healthy relationships in digital spaces.

This is how the course Escolas ON, Violências OFF: Educação para a segurança online de meninas (“Schools ON, Violence OFF: Education for girls’ online safety”) was born, targeting teachers in the public school system across the country. In the initial phase of the initiative, Serenas was responsible for content production, implementation, and launch of the online course, which includes text-based materials and video lessons with accessibility features.

Following the launch, a phase of enrollment mobilization began, aimed at expanding educators’ access to the course, and institutionalizing it within Education Offices in Brazil. In the initiative’s second phase, Serenas established partnerships with 6 state and city Education Offices across all regions of the country. In addition, the initiative was incorporated into the training track for professionals of Escola que Protege (“School that Protects” Program), under the Coordination for Combating Violence in Schools of the Ministry of Education.