The Indonesian Protestant Church or Gereja Kristen Indonesia (GKI) Nusukan worked with Yayasan YAPHI to organized Children Sunday School Day at the Church Complex on Tuesday (16/). The activity used talk-show format and games, and started in the morning and ended by midday with attendance including parents and children.

In front of adult church members, the director of Yayasan Yekti Angudi Piadeging Hukum Indonesia (YAPHI), Haryati Panca Putri encouraged participants to understand increasingly worrisome cases of violence. She mentioned that four of ten women had experienced sexual violence. Yet, women were not the only victims of violence. Men and other vulnerable groups, including LGBT communities, could potentially experienced diverse forms of violence.

Haryati highlighted that YAPHI presence was not to become a teacher for the community, but to learn together regarding prevention of violence. She explained that violence did not only take the form of sexual violence, but also other forms of infringement of human dignity and honor.

As an organization rooted in Protestant and Catholic values, YAPHI was established out of concern for the injustices happening in the community. Haryati said that the situation in Indonesia today was mired in issues from increasing corruption, poverty, and exploitation of natural resources by small groups of people. On the other hand, law should have been the umbrella that protected the community, but unfortunately, it was not up to the task to give a sense of justice.

Since Yayasan YAPHI was set up in 1987, it had done significant advocacy work in a variety of forms. To date, the organization developed an eco-feminism approach in order to improve the quality of life of risk groups and marginal groups. The program included protection of women and children, accompaniment of victims of human rights violation, advocacy for agrarian reform, and monitoring of the impacts of development project on community’s rights.

Haryati explained that YAPHI faced stigma, from accusation of cristianisation to link with the Indonesian Communist Party. Yet, these did not stop Yaphi’s work to accompany the community who needed legal aid and psychological services.

Beyond advocacy, YAPHI was actively doing public education. It worked with a number of parties, including governments, schools, Islamic madrasah, to universities. The activities included anti-violence education, consolidation of women and child protection, and anti-corruption education for the young generation.

Through those activities, YAPHI expected to build gender- and environment-based movements to promote social transformation. For Yaphi, defending the weak and fighting for justice were not simply program activities, but a humanitarian call that had to be nurtured to face the challenge of the evolving world.

Beyond adults as its program targets, YAPHI’s education also involved children. Through simple and easily-understood methods, facilitators encouraged children to know their own body as a first step to prevent sexual violence.

In one session, children mentioned parts of the body that they knew. Children then wrote names of the body parts one by one. It was interesting that out of around 21 body parts written down, not one child wrote boys’ and girrs’ genitalia.

One of the facilitators, Yosi used this moment to explain that there was nothing to fear or to be ashamed of when talking about the genitalia in a correct manner. He suggested that that body part was a private part that children had to know from the very early age.

To children, Yosi explained that privacy meant the parts of body that should not be shown or touched by other people. Only the person him/herself and certain people who had caring responsibility, such as parents, would be allowed to help in certain situation. That explanation came with games, discussion, and educative claps that made learning fun.

Yosi said that children never had such explanation about knowing their own body and how to do protect themselves from sexual violence. For that reason, he believed that such education was critical so that children understood the body boundary and were able to protect themselves when faced with unsafe situation.

In the parents’ room, discussion on violence moved to the root culture often unconsciously perpetuate violence. Participants had to understand that culture was habits done continuously that people viewed them as normal.

In the discussion, facilitator Dunung Sukocowati highlighted forms of sexual violence that people often considered light, from comments with sexual undertone, whistles, and jokes that made a person not feeling comfortable. Such normalizing behavior was one reason why it was difficult to create safe space for women and children.

The discussion then moved to more complex forms of sexual violence, including sexual exploitation, forced sex in the family, electronic-based sexual violence, forced marriage, and forced contraceptive use and sterilisation.

Through a number of examples of case accompaniment that the facilitator had managed, the facilitators showed that sexual violence could happen in a variety pf spaces, including in own family setting. For that reason, it was not enough to commit only to prevention through legal enforcement, but also through education, change of viewpoints, and community self-confidence to build a culture that respected body, dignity, and rights of every person.

The discussion about sexual violence got deeper as the facilitator shared accompaniment experience by YAPHI. The facilitator described many cases that showed that sexual violence did not necessarily take the form of easily recognized acts. Conversely, many cases happened in closed spaces and involved imbalance power relations.

Through a number of examples, participants understood that sexual torture could cause deep/serious harm, physically and psychologically. Yet for the facilitators, it was equally important to understand the root problem that caused violence to keep happening generation after generation.

Facilitators argued that one key factor was parenting style characterized by violence. Children tended to learn from whatever they saw, heard, felt, and experienced on a daily basis. When they grew in an environment full of fights, threats, or violence, those behaviours risked being viewed as normal.

The facilitators showcased a number of cases they managed as examples. In a number of cases, children who became perpetrators of violence were exposed to sexual acts beyond their age or witnessed acts that they should not have witnessed. Such experiences then influenced how they understood their relations with other people.

Beyond parenting style, the lack of communication in family also placed a role in children finding themselves in vulnerable situation. Many children faced private issues without having safe space to tell their parents. As a result, they looked for an escape through social media or by communicating with strangers who then seized the opportunity.

Participants were encouraged to see gender stereotypes influenced and technological progress. Misuse of social media, distribution of personal content without permit, and different forms of electronic-based violence became new challenges. For that reason, digital education was as important as character education in the family.

In the presentation, the facilitator explained that the impacts of sexual violence not only showed in physical harms or reproductive health problems. The psychological impacts lasted much longer and affected victims in a variety of aspects. Fear, loss of self-confidence, trauma, and difficulty developing relationship with other people were consequences that victims often expressed.

For that reason, parents were encouraged to teach children to identify situation that made them uncomfortable, and to have the self-confidence to say “no,” and to tell adults they could trust. Participants were also reminded to not normalize behaviour that violated children’s body boundaries, even when it was done as joke or as a show of love.

By the end of the session, there was a question with regards to steps to take when violence had become part of the culture in the community. In response, the facilitator stated that changes were never easy. Habits done continuously could be viewed as normal. Yet, changes had to start from oneself, family, and the closest environment. Changing viewpoints regarding violence was the first step to build a safer, just culture that respected human dignity.

Evangelist Titik was one participant in the talk show who served at GKI and who helped nurture talent development amongst church members in Mojosongo. Beyond helping church members, she was also active at children Sunday School. She said that education today was very useful in light of the high number of sexual violence globally.

Positive response also came from those accompanying children. One person involved in Sunday School accompaniment for two years, Vino acknowledged that the material was new for most participants. (Ast)