This partnership project between Droga in Poland and VSM in Malta will focus on developing educational tools to tackle gender-based cyber violence, and in particular, the creation of a campaign to raise awareness on the topic of cyber violence.
By learning from each other and exchanging experiences between us in respect of this topic, VSM and Droga will also look specifically at how cyber crime is defined and examples of the crime, developing a strategy regarding the use of social media and addressing local communities on how to combat this issue.
The project “Partnership for the development of educational tools tackling gender-based cyber violence” aims at creating educational tools that will enable the prevention and combat of gender-based violence (GBCV) by developing new skills, and building the capacity of the partnering organization to work transnationally. The project intends to upgrade a set of new ICT skills and enable change at the individual and organizational level that will transform them into full-fledged entities being able to face the future challenges linked with the upcoming new forms of GBCV.
The project is cofinanced by European Union within the Erasmus Plus program and run in cooperation with Victim Support Malta (VSM).
PROJECT ACTIVITIES:
The training conducted by the Maltese VSM Foundation entitled: “Topics of counteracting digital violence against women in social media” took place on 24-29 September 2023. The training was aimed at designing online content to be used in the content of the future campaign, which will be implemented by the VSM Foundation and the DROGA Association in 2024.
From 3rd to 7th July 2023, a training was held in Attard, Malta, conducted by the VSM Foundation for members of the DROGA association, the aim of which was to jointly prepare the creation of tools for the implementation of grassroots social campaigns against cyberbullying. The training also covered related issues, i.e. internet safety, the specifics of planning, implementing and assessing the effectiveness of thematic social campaigns in social media, i.e. Instagram and Facebook, creating digital content and including other organizations and institutions operating in the joint action.
On March 26-30, 2024, a delegation of representatives of the Maltese foundation Vicitim Support Malta (VSM) visited Olsztynek and Olsztyn. The visit was related to the jointly implemented project on gender-based digital harassment entitled: “Partnership for the development of educational tools tackling gender-based cyber violence”. During the visit, we worked on a program to counteract digital violence, a future social campaign in this area and collecting data on gender-based digital crimes committed in Poland and Malta, which will contribute to reducing social acceptance of digital violence, the victims of which are, in most cases, women.
The next event within the project will take place soon – an expert seminar in Malta (31 May this year) and a social campaign in June and a conference closing the project (September this year).
On May 31, 2024, a seminar entitled “Cyber attack on gender” was held in Marsa, Malta. The topic of the seminar was to understand new forms of digital harassment, such as stalking, pornography, online grooming, whose victims are women, develop good practices for their prevention, and analyze cyberviolence at many levels in the cooperation of non-governmental organizations, police authorities, courts, local and central authorities.
The seminar was organized by the Maltese VSM Foundation in cooperation with the DROGA Association. It was attended by participants from Malta, Poland and the European Commission, and the main speakers were Dr. Eleonora Esposito (Spain) and Dr. Iris Luarasi (Albania).
From 24 June to 1 July, the DROGA association and the Maltese foundation Vicitm Support Malta (VSM) organised a social media campaign entitled: “Click with kindness”.
The aim of the campaign was to show the consequences of digital violence against women.
The campaign included 2 rolls and 8 posts on social media and the association’s website, as well as 2 rolls and 5 posts on the VSM website.
Total campaign reach in Poland: 31,699 people, 293 interactions.
Total campaign reach in Malta: 1,232 people, 138 interactions.
On September 26, 2024, a conference was organized in Olsztynek entitled: ” Online and offline security: cyberbullying as a social problem “.
The conference, the culmination of the project entitled: ” Partnership for the development of educational tools tackling gender-based cyber violence “, organized in cooperation with the Maltese foundation Victim Support Malta (VSM), addressed the growing problem of digital violence, including violence against women. The project, which aimed to develop educational tools, aims to draw attention to the scale and risks of violence in the online world, as well as to provide concrete solutions to counteract it.
Project's deliverables:
Project activities
The project implementation will be broken down into five work packages (WP) which will lead to producing the project’s planned activities:
WP1: Preparing educational tools and increasing professional skills of the partnership staff members
WP2: Empowering communities and local stakeholders on gender-based cyber violence through pretesting and pilot actions
WP3: Preparing for mobilities and networking activities
WP4: Communication and dissemination actions
WP5: Project management.
Impact
The project expected deliverables will be as follows:
1) three training schemes for the staff members and professionals of the partnership on GBCV
2) a final publication
3) a pilot action supported by testing and report on how to run social awareness campaigns tackling gender-based cyber violence addressed to local stakeholders
4) a set of graphics and text materials on GBCV ready-to-used social media
5) a thematic seminar for 40 participants dedicated to ICT gender-based violence issues.
