Youth Programme

WCC conducts interesting outreach programmes for youth and teenagers focusing on building healthy relationships and sexuality. RESPEK is WCC’s pioneer youth programme that was developed in 1999. In recent years, WCC added two more interactive programmes for teenagers being, ‘Membina Perhubungan Mesra’ (MPM) for girls in 2004 and ‘Turning Point’ (TP) for boys in 2005.

RESPEK – Knowing Yourself, Respect Yourself

RESPEK is an educational programme for teenagers (boys and girls). The whole RESPEK programme is six hours and consists of four sessions. The objective of RESPEK is to help teenagers:

learn about their sexual bodily function
gain insights into self-esteem and self-image
learn negotiation techniques

Session 1: Understanding Puberty

This interactive two-hour session focuses on puberty when teenagers go through major physical and psychological changes. It makes it clear that these changes are normal. It is emphasised in this session that these changes are normal. Teenagers go through four activities such as stages if physical development, teenage emotional changes, physical development and female and male reproductive organ systems.

Session 2: Reproduction: My Body, Your Body

The second session is an interactive session which promotes knowledge and understanding of the process of reproduction. This is intended to help teenagers build self-esteem and have positive images of themselves. In this session, teenagers actively participate in activities related to the process of reproduction and how a baby is made.

Session 3: Attitudes and Assumptions

This workshop covers teenagers’ beliefs, attitudes, and assumptions related to relationships with the opposite sex. Through this workshop, teenagers will be made aware that people have different ideas about behaviour in relationships and part of growing up means being able to think, judge, and make decisions for oneself.

Session 4: Video Tape Drama on RESPEK

In this session, students watch a 30-minute videotape drama depicting three different scenarios of relationships in which students are encouraged actively to participate. Each scene exposes behaviour that could lead to manipulative situations in a relationship. At certain points in the drama, questions are posed to the students and they participate by:

identifying the exploitative situation in each scenario,
challenging the aggressor with regards to manipulative behaviours and
suggesting options of behaviour which might enable her/him to negotiate her/his way out of the potentially unhealthy situation

‘Membina Perhubungan Mesra’ (MPM) for Teenage Girls

‘Membina Perhubungan Mesra’ (MPM) was a youth project jointly organised by Persatuan Bunga Tanjung (PBT) and WCC. This project was launched in response to growing concerns about the safety of teenage girls. Teenagers nowadays are starting relationships as early as 15 years of age. Some of them are vulnerable and end up in risky situation.

The objectives of this 2-hour interactive programme are that teenage girls will learn to:

discern between close friends and casual acquaintances; the positive and negative aspects in relationships
be aware of the assumptions of the opposites sex and how it affects expectations, especially in dating situations
be aware of potential risks in dating situations – leading to discussions on negotiation and choice
raise consciousness relating to sexual assaults and so provide adolescents with information on how to protect themselves as well as where to seek for help.

Due to the intensive nature of this programme, four facilitators are required to run any workshop of 40 students. The MPM programme is divided into two parts:

Session 1: Friendship & Relationship

Participants explore the positive (healthy) and negative (unhealthy) aspects in a friendship as well as differentiate between close friends and casual acquaintances. They play a game which challenges their ideas on behaviour related to relationships. They discuss sexual assault, the aim of which is to get the participants to focus on healthy relationships.

Session 2: MPM VCD

Participants view a scenario from the VCD, answer questions regarding the scenarios and role play possible options of behaviour. The aim is to enable adolescent to view potential risks in dating situations, be aware of options in any relationship and empower them to protect themselves when the need arises. There is time at the end of each session for questions and discussion with facilitators who should be prepared to hold private sessions if requested by the participants.

Conclusion

The participants who have attended this two-hour workshop will have an improved sense of self-respect, respect for others, and a concept of a healthy relationship. They will have learnt to whom and where to go for help in a risky situation.

Turning Point (for Boys)

Turning point (TP) is a programme targeted specifically at 16-17 year old boys to teach them to respect girls. TP should be seen as a starting point of the teenage boys’ journey towards a more positive attitude to women and a healthier concept of relationships between men and women. In order to do this, the programme focuses on two areas: a) relationship and b) sexual assault.

In this programme, the students explore:

how young men relate to young women
what behaviours are considered acceptable and unacceptable
their ideas and beliefs about, and attitude to, young women
how their ideas can influence their behaviour towards women

With regards to sexual assault, the participants will discuss:

the issue of gender violence
impact on victims
how young men can be involved in supporting victims of sexual assaults

TP is a two-hour interactive programme for small groups of male students. Each facilitator works with six or seven students at a time. Small groups not only allow for better interaction between facilitators and students but also reduce ‘pack mentality’ or defensive group responses. The programme is conducted in Bahasa Malaysia. This programme uses a total of eight male facilitators. This approach is an attempt to reach the students on a man-to-man basis so that the male students will feel free and more comfortable to openly discuss their ideas and responses regarding women. It is also felt that when ideas about respect for women are put forward and discussed by male facilitators, they present positive role models for the students.

Different methodologies such as brainstorming, structured group discussions, multimedia viewing, value clarification, and decision-making are used during the programme. The programme is divided into three sessions.

Session 1: Movie Time (Mabuk Cinta / Abang Angkat / Ikut Hati Mati, Ikut Kaki)

In this session, the students are encouraged to recognise what constitutes disrespectful behaviour towards women. This is done via the viewing of one of the three abovementioned scenarios from the VCD ‘Membina Perhubungan Mesra’. After the movie, the students discuss the behaviour as well as feelings of the female character. They then explore their feelings if the female character in the scene is a family member. The students are encouraged to consider treating women the way they would want their sister and mother to be treated. Then they move on to play a game which encourages them to discuss acceptable and non-acceptable behaviour in boy-girl relationships, focusing on the need for mutual respect.

Session 2: Your Ideas

In this session, the students link negative ideas about, and disrespect for, women, which could lead to abusive behaviour towards women. This involves the students talking about their views on women, where these ideas came from, and how their perceptions influence their behaviour towards women.

To further help build empathy for victims of sexual assault, the students were shown newspaper cuttings and statistics on sodomy. They then discuss how they might support a victim of sexual assault.

Session 3: Sexual Assault

In this third session, students link sexual assault/gender violence to disrespect for women. The students view newspaper articles about rape. They then explore their feelings and ideas about rape. They are encouraged not to blame the rape victims but to view the rapist as someone who makes a choice (based on his ideas) to disrespect and sexually assault a woman. To further help build empathy for victims of sexual assault, the students are shown newspaper cuttings and statistics on sodomy. The students then discuss how they might support a victim of sexual assault. At the end of the session, the TP facilitators summarise the programme and hand out the ‘Turning Point’ pamphlets which contain information on violence against women and why men should be involved in eradicating VAW. The pamphlet also gives suggestions on what the students can do in their homes, with their friends, and in school

Conclusion:

The teenage boys who this two-hour workshop will be able to differentiate between behaviours which are considered acceptable and unacceptable towards women. They come to understand how their beliefs and attitudes towards young women can influence their behaviour towards woman. They will be more aware of sexual assaults happening to women and feel empathy towards the victims.

Gender Sensitisation Workshop

WCC also conducts gender-sensitisation workshops for young adults in colleges and universities. The objectives of this one-day interactive workshop are to:

help them differentiate between gender and sex
understand the influence of gender expectations in relationship, marriage, and violence against women

This one-day interactive workshop covers the following sessions:

Session 1: Gender & Sex

In this first session, young people will brainstorm the similarities and differences between men and women in physical characteristics and social roles. They will be a given a brief lecture on ‘What is Gender and Sex’ and a short quiz at the end of the session.

Session 2: Gender Expectation in Relationship

In this session, young people will play an interactive game on ‘Gender Expectation in Relationship’. This activity will give them some awareness of how gender plays a role in a relationship and how gender ideas influence people’s expectations in relationship.

Session 3: Gender & Ideal Partner

In this session, young people are divided into single sex groups and asked to list on a large piece of paper the qualities and the roles they expect their life partner to have in a marriage. After that, they are asked to present their ideas and the facilitator encourages them to see whether there are any gender statements in their list. This session is intended to make young people understand the influence of gender in a marriage and how this gender idea sometimes leads to problems, unfulfilled expectations, and violence in the family.

Session 4: Gender & VAW

A short lecture on how gender ideas and expectations can lead to violence against women. Some WCC true stories on VAW are shared with young people to make them aware of the link between gender and domestic violence.

Conclusion

Young people who participate in the one-day interactive workshop learn about the differences between gender and sex, the influence of gender expectation in relationships, choosing their life partner, and how gender expectations and ideas can lead to violence against women.