ECLAC presents novel experiences in preventing school violence
Monday, 18 May 2009, Santiago | Author: ECLAC
Over 600 students, teachers and school directors filled the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean's (ECLAC) conference rooms for the First Encounter for Replicating Social Innovation: "Negotiation, the secret to prevent school violence" on 13 May. The seminar was organized by ECLAC in conjunction with the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF).
The seminar was inaugurated by the Secretary of the Commission, Laura López, and the Director of UNESCO's Regional Office of Education for Latin America and the Caribbean (OREALC), Jorge Sequeira.
Two innovative and successful experiences in preventing school violence were presented during the meeting. Both have won the Experiences in Social Innovation Contest organized by ECLAC with support from the Kellogg Foundation.
They are: Prevention of violence through conflict resolution and mediation of peers, in Argentina, and the Programme for conflict management "Hermes", in Colombia. Both have reduced school violence through peer mediation.
In the afternoon, in two parallel sessions, teachers and students shared experiences with the persons in charge of the two projects.
Particularly interesting was the dialogue among the students, in which nearly 250 children and teenagers from the poorest schools in Santiago posed questions to peer mediators in Argentina and Colombia. Their questions focused on peaceful means of facing violent acts against their peers, and how to learn to become mediators themselves.
María Elisa Bernal, director of the Experiences in Social Innovation project, said the massive participation in the meeting expresses "the deep need of the educational community to find solutions to the problem of violence in schools."