This event, organized by WILPF Cameroon, the Gender Equality Network for Small Arms Control(GENSAC), Cameroon for a World Beyond War and Youth For Peace The aim of the event was to raise awareness of violence in schools, and to promote a sense of togetherness and cohesion. Some 200 participants, including the high school principal and the chairwoman of the March 8 organizing committee, took part in the event.

     Matilda NIGUIN, President of the Wellness Awareness Center and Guidance Counselor, addressed the issue of violence in schools, focusing on its manifestations and consequences on students’ lives. Armelle_NDONGO, Disarmament Program Coordinator and GENSAC Africa Focal Point, focused her presentation on small arms and light weapons, emphasizing their definition and the legal framework in Cameroon.

    Discussions with students and teachers highlighted the fact that drug use, the use of edged weapons and other deviant behaviors can gradually lead young people towards the use of small arms and light weapons, thus fostering large-scale gender-based violence.

    100 students, supervised by 10 teachers, were divided into 10 groups to reflect on issues such as the types of violence they regularly encounter at school and how to denounce the violence they witness. The results identified a range of types of violence perpetrated in the school environment, as well as strategies for reporting them. Such violence is not specific to a particular type of school, but rather a general phenomenon that the national community needs to tackle together if it is to build lasting peace.

     The young people of the Mbalngong bilingual high school showed themselves to be committed, dynamic and active on the issues addressed. The organizers left with the satisfaction of seeing these young people promise to be ambassadors of peace and violence reduction in their school and community environment.