Youth globally can come together to sharpen the focus in addressing violence against women and girls and advocate for changes in policies and practices that will dismantle patriarchy. An international youth network has been created with the Erasmus+ supported Breaking The Cycle programme and its followup BreakIN (See https://www.gbvamongyouth.org/).
In the programme’s first phase, Breaking The Cycle catalysed youth in six countries across the world, organising global exchange visits, study programmes, training workshops and more. It created awareness among youth on gender based violence and involved them in addressing the issue among their communities. In its second phase, BreakIN, the process was taken further by engaging men and boys in particular as it became increasingly clear that to prevent violence against women, men needed to be key agents of change.
The network thus evolved from a generalised global youth programme to a new direction. The shared learning process has focused on understanding and learning different methodologies being used by organisations in countries spanning Europe, Africa, Asia and the South Pacific on how young men and boys relations with feminism can be strengthened. The network has also allied with public institutions.
The approach of this transnational youth network is to strategically partner and engage young men along with young women in dialogues on culture, religion, gender and the drivers of change in masculinity conceptions in contrasting societies across Africa, Oceania, Europe and Asia. The network has provided knowledge and skills for cross-regional capacity building of youth workers in prevention of gender based violence in intersectional contexts.
Learn more about Breaking The Cycle’s creative cultural tools and non-formal methods for engaging youth through the lens of masculinities and gender and provoking youth reflections and action.
