Linda Cerdeira has been a Project Coordinator at Instituto Promundo since 2014 and works on projects related to fatherhood and care and violence prevention. Currently, Linda coordinates Youth for the End of Violence, a new project that will be implemented in six public schools in Rio de Janeiro this year. Based on Living Peace, a therapeutic approach used in post-conflict contexts, this initiative seeks to help adolescent boys and girls build healthy relationships based on equity and non-violence. In this interview, Linda talks about the process of adapting the methodology, including the challenges presented by the current political context in Brazil. The project is also being implemented in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where it is called Youth Living Peace.
1) Can you talk a little about the Youth for the End of Violence project? How did you adapt the Living Peace methodology to work with young people in Brazil?
In Brazil, the Youth Living Peace project was called Jovens pelo Fim da Violência and was developed based on several recognized methodologies: Programa H , Programa M , and Living Peace , from Promundo and the Expect Respect program (link in English), used in public schools in the state of Texas, in the United States. All of them have as one of their objectives the transformation of behaviors and attitudes to promote non-violence, health and gender equity.
What is very interesting about the Living Peace methodology, in particular, is that it also addresses secondary violence prevention (not just focusing on preventing future violence, but also on long-term recovery). Through therapeutic group sessions, participants are helped to develop strategies for coping with their traumas. We know that the school context faces great difficulties in providing responses and support to students and that their personal and family issues can often translate into violence in schools. Therefore, we believe that this group work, through exercises focused on empathy, listening and sharing, can help these students develop new, more positive trajectories for their lives, contributing to their own academic performance.
2) What successes and challenges have you had on the project so far?
It is always a challenge to work on issues related to gender violence, sexuality, identities, diversity... Even when we are talking to people who already reflect on these issues, when we delve deeper into them, discomforts and new questions arise. Prejudices are so structural that recognizing them often involves calling into question our own experiences and this can be painful, violent and uncomfortable. We end up recognizing ourselves as victims and/or aggressors in different situations in our lives and we don't know how to deal with it. This is the biggest challenge we face when we set out to develop a methodology like this:
help people reflect without hurting; inspire transformation without destroying.
Naturally, the political moment of setbacks in access and guarantee of rights has also greatly impacted the project. When we approach schools, it is not always easy to negotiate and accept to discuss these topics, whether for fear of reprisals from the families themselves, for religious conviction, or for fear that this will 'destabilize' the school environment. It requires a lot of dialogue and understanding.
3) What role does a project like Jovens pelo Fim da Violência play in current political efforts to ban discussion about gender in schools?
In my opinion it is a role of resistance. The more we see conservative setbacks in the country's policies, and the religious influence in determining these policies, the more urgent it becomes to act.
And the truth is that we find many people, whether in education departments or in schools, who are completely committed to this place of struggle, mainly because they know better than anyone the fundamental place that schools have in the development of children and young people. Fortunately, for now, the country's legislation still supports and legitimizes this work to prevent gender-based violence. It is important to resist and insist so that it continues to be this way.
4) Last year, high school students in various parts of Brazil occupied their schools to demand changes in teaching and the structure of education. Taking into account youth protagonism, what strategies do you believe should be valued in this adaptation of Living Peace?
In this project, we greatly value youth leadership and, above all, associations. We know that group action is empowering, and that's why we highly value the importance of developing empathy with those around us, sharing and the ability to network. If we think about youth – who are often disqualified by society from making decisions, giving their opinion or participating in public policies that directly affect their lives – we believe that it is essential that they are encouraged to organize, discuss and fight for their rights.
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