Workshop:"Skills in working with men to prevent domestic violence"

With the purpose of providing CSAGA’s partners with skills in working with men to prevent domestic violence, then they can take part in common programmes and maintain prevention models that CSAGA has been carrying out to promote gender equality and prevent violence against women, during four days, from June 29 to July 2 2011 at La Thanh hotel, Hanoi, CSAGA conducted the workshop: “Skills in Working with Men to Prevent Domestic Violence”. Participants are officers who are directly taking part in project activities at the Central Maternity Hospital, Polyclinic Hospital at Tan Lac, Hoa Binh, To Hieu high school – Thuong Tin – Hanoi, and Muong Bi high school – Tan Lac – Hoa Binh. Some staff at NGOs which are dedicating to gender equality promotion and gender-based violence prevention, and some outstanding members of the Fathers-to-be group at Policlinic Hospital at Tan Lac, Hoa Binh take part in the programme, too.
It was a great honour for the workshop to welcome Ms. Elsa Håstad, the First Secretary of the Swedish Embassy and Ms. Lotta Sylwander, UNICEF country representative in Vietnam. In the opening speech, Ms. Elsa Håstad shared her personal story and practical experiences about the prevention of domestic violence in Sweden. This is a valuable lesson for workshop participants in the context that officers in Vietnam have still lacked basic skills in preventing domestic violence.

With the self-reflection and deep sharing methods, two Swedish international experts, who have spent years in domestic violence prevention and giving counseling and psychological treatment to men perpetrators, Vidar Vetterfalk and Peter  Söderström led participants going through four interesting days with very meaningful experiences. The two experts did not provide participants with so much theory but gave many opportunities for participants to take part in varied activities, look deeply into themselves and hence had their own lessons and experiences in the process of working with men to prevent domestic violence later on. A friendly and comfortable working environment was what all participants felt deeply in the workshop. In the class, many people said that was the first time they could share the stories that they had never shared, would like to share or had enough courage to face it and share it before. Truthfully, the workshop was successful more than anything organizers could expect.
Closing the workshop, participants showed their satisfaction to the workshop and wished that they would be able to take part in more meaningful and helpful workshops like this in the future. Through this workshop, a network gathering individuals and organizations committed to gender equality was established and promised to be a strong network in the future. Some participants started to draw up specific plans for themselves to promote gender equality and prevent domestic violence.