Knowing Your Rights: Bringing Safety Knowledge to Girls During COVID-19

Dec 01, 2021
The students are showing self-learning kits for the camera.

Knowing how to recognise danger, protect yourself, and ask for help can make a real difference when something goes wrong.

But during the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching girls through our usual face-to-face workshops became difficult. Pratthanadee Foundation therefore adapted our Claim Your Rights content into self-learning kits that girls could use independently at home.

In November 2021, with support from SHEIN, we distributed 1,136 Claim Your Rights self-learning kits to girls across six secondary schools in Ubon Ratchathani, Amnat Charoen, and Si Sa Ket.

💡Practical Knowledge Girls Could Keep

Each kit included a self-learning guide, activities, and useful learning supplies. Girls could work through the materials at their own pace and keep the guide to revisit later.

The content focused on practical situations close to girls’ lives, including:

  • recognising violence, harassment, and unsafe situations;
  • understanding rights and basic self-protection;
  • responding more safely when facing danger;
  • emergency numbers and organisations that provide support; and
  • risks connected to technology, social media, and online spaces.

This information addressed an important gap. Among questionnaire respondents, 71% did not know an organisation that could help women affected by violence, while half reported having experienced or witnessed violence.

For 95% of respondents, this was also their first experience receiving this type of self-learning kit.

“I Was Happy That Girls Like Us Were Seen”

Girls’ reflections showed that the value of the kits went beyond simply receiving learning materials.

The students are writing on a sheet.

A girls is showing student self-learning kits for the camera.

One girl wrote:

I was happy that girls like us were seen.

We rarely receive learning kits like this. Thank you.

— Feedback from participant

Another shared:

The self-learning kit is very useful for girls like us.

It taught us how to protect ourselves correctly and safely if violence occurs.

— Feedback from participant

Many girls also highlighted the importance of knowing where to seek help:

I learned that there are many support centers

we can actually contact and that this information is relevant to our lives.

— Feedback from participant

Among 207 reflections, 58% mentioned gaining new knowledge, 46% referred to safety or self-protection, and 43% highlighted emergency contacts or ways to seek help.

📍Keeping Important Knowledge Within Reach

A self-learning kit cannot replace everything that happens in a face-to-face workshop. There is less opportunity for discussion, questions, and practising skills together.

But during a period when meeting girls in person was limited, it helped us continue putting practical information directly into their hands.

The value of the project was simple but important: girls could learn how to recognise risks, think about their own safety, and know that support was available if they ever needed it.

We are grateful to SHEIN for helping Pratthanadee Foundation keep this knowledge within reach of 1,136 girls across Northeastern Thailand.

The students are showing self-learning kits for the camera.