ST THOMAS, Jamaica: Upper high-school boys across St Thomas are responding positively to a sexual violence intervention being spearheaded by non-profit organisation Angelic Ladies Society.

The programme, dubbed, ‘Echoes of Change: The Problem with the P’ has already reached six high schools in the eastern parish and will continue throughout this week.

It is being undertaken in collaboration with various government entities and the church.

Angelic Ladies Society executed a similar project in 2023 to benefit young girls and has received funding from the European Union (EU) for this latest initiative targeted at male students.

Founder/Executive Director and Project Lead, Sara-Lou Morgan-Walker, told JIS News that the discussions, so far, have been riveting as facilitators and students delve into the topic of sexual violence.

With the focus of this project being males, she noted that the highly engaging sessions are led by male facilitators.

“We are not leading the discussion in these spaces. Once our male facilitators are there, we are only assisting them to ensure that the dialogue continues to ensure that we are hearing what is being said in the room and to add variety to the context of the conversation,” Morgan-Walker said.

Explaining the discussion format, she told JIS News, “We started out with an ice-breaker activity to find out what they know. Then, we introduced the definition of sexual assault in very basic terms that they could understand.”

She said that terms such as “force”, “coercion”, and “manipulation” were explained to the youngsters, using scenarios and vernacular language.

“From there, we started talking about consent and what age of consent is, what it means to give consent [and] what withdrawal of consent is,” she noted.

Morgan-Walker, who is a 2024 Governor-General’s Achievement Award recipient, noted that one observation from the sessions is the influence of social media on the boys’ understanding of reality.

“It was interesting how caught up sometimes they are in the social media world that they bring it over into real life conversations and I feel like it takes away from the reality and the seriousness of the context of the conversation,” she said.

She said that facilitators were, therefore, keen to properly explain what is considered rape and grievous sexual assault, and to outline the relevant penalties for these crimes in the real world.

Roughly 68 boys from each school have been participating in the sessions, with an average age of 16 years old.

Morgan-Walker noted that a preliminary profile was done for each school, where her team engaged guidance counsellors on issues affecting the institution as it relates to sexual assault. That way, each workshop is tailored to the attendees’ immediate environment.

“In the end, the post test was to tell us one thing they have learnt and one thing they will change. Relatively, when we went through the responses, a lot of it was around the issue of consent and getting a ‘yes’,” she said.

‘Echoes of Change, the Problem with the P’ is being implemented with the partnership of the Ministry of Health and Wellness’ St Thomas Teen Hub.

The facilitators include Youth Empowerment Officer, Region 2, Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information’s Youth and Adolescent Policy Division Unit, Dwayne Brown; Church of God in Jamaica Pastor and Christian Education Director, Reverend Darren McKoy; and Male Empowerment Officers from the Bureau of Gender Affairs (BGA), Nashan Miller and Nachan Foster.

– JIS