Healthy Relationships for a Violence-Free Future: GBV Prevention and Response- using 4R module for Healthcare Workers, Faith and Community Leaders Training Report

The Activity aims to promote healthy, non-violent relationships, particularly between intimate partners, adolescents, and their parents, and adolescents/youth. It brings these groups together to create dialogue and rebuild fractured relationships, change behaviors and attitudes, and the underlying gender norms and inequitable social structures that drive Gender-Based Violence (GBV). The Activity focuses on preventive measures, including awareness-raising activities, strengthening community service organizations, and advocacy for stronger application of GBV laws and service improvement. One intervention for strengthening community service organizations is building their capacity in identifying, responding, and referring GBV cases. During the last two weeks of July 2021, the Activity team worked in partnership with the Psychosocial Recovery and Development in Timor-Leste organization (PRADET) to deliver GBV prevention and response training using the 4R (Recognize, Respect, Response, and Referral) module for faith and community leaders, including health workers, in three administrative posts. The training aimed to inform healthcare workers and faith and community leaders to end violence against women and children, and to educate community and faith leaders to recognize the different types of abuse and report them to relevant service providers. The training was conducted for two groups of participants: healthcare workers in the Zumalai administrative post and faith and community leaders from all 16 villages in the three administrative posts targeted by the Activity. The total number of participants was 143, including 100 males and 43 females. The training was facilitated by two PRADET trainers, Mrs. Luisa Maria Dos Reis Marcal and Mrs. Hortencia Fatima Miranda, who have been working with PRADET for more than 15 years and have been trained as Trainers of Trainers for the 4R module since 2005. The 4R module consists of topics such as domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, relevant laws, myth and facts about domestic violence and sexual assault, impact on health, recognizing wounds that are not caused by accident, talking to victims, human rights, responsibility, and who can help. The participants actively participated and were very interactive in the trainings, and the facilitators used various training methodologies to foster group discussions. The trainings taught participants a wide range of topics on dealing with victims, including how to approach and talk to victims in a difficult situation. The training was conducted in three administrative posts: Tilomar, Maucatar, and Zumalai. The training was initially delayed due to the sanitary fence restriction caused by Covid-19, but the restriction was eased in early July, allowing the trainers to travel and provide the training to the targeted participants within the three administrative posts. The training is expected to spread out to young people through the integration of preventive and referral systems throughout the activities of community and faith leaders, such as through IMPACT youth clubs and parent clubs established in their villages.