Interview with Irati García López de Aguileta, head of educational content of the Beldur Barik Technical Secretariat
- Why the need for this training for people working with youths based on the Beldur Barik programme?
It is important to work with the people who are in direct contact with young people to enhance the impact of work done to prevent gender-based violence. Non-formal education and leisure activities offer the possibility of launching processes that can be sustained over time and that lead to a real change of values and attitudes in young people. And that is the philosophy of the programme.
Long-term and more informal work offers many possibilities because of the type of relationships that are generated. Educators and monitors are key figures for young people, and for them to be able to support them in Beldur Barik processes, they need to be trained.
- How would you briefly define the philosophy of the Beldur Barik programme?
As an approach to male violence that points out its structural nature; that avoids the victim/offender dichotomy and focuses on the manifestation of male violence in young people's everyday lives; that overcomes stigmatisation and victimisation; and that works in a positive and proactive manner: empowering girls and raising awareness and responsibility among boys.
The programme's preventive approach is based on supporting thought processes aimed at changing the attitudes and values of young people. And to enable the agents involved in these processes to support them, the programme offers educational tools and an advisory service through its technical secretariat.
- Why an audiovisual competition?
The competition is the main tool of the programme. The idea is to encourage these processes through formats that connect with young people. However, the key aspect is the content we work on while preparing the videos. The audiovisual format serves as an excuse to address, through artistic expressions, how girls and boys face the current situation of inequality and to promote behaviours and attitudes based on equality, freedom, autonomy, co-responsibility, and the firm rejection of sexist violence.
Moreover, it is clear that the audiovisual format still works today and sometimes the incentive of competition makes it easier for young people to start working on this issue. We have introduced changes to the competition over the years. For example, new tools that encourage discussion and reflection have been created, and the lines of work and age groups to which the competition categories correspond have been changed.
- What would you highlight about this edition?
In this edition, I would highlight the educational tools guide aimed at non-formal education contexts, which has been updated with new activities. The "toolbox" format has been maintained so that youth workers and youth experts have the flexibility to choose various options to support reflection processes on gender-based violence with the young people they work with. This education toolkit document includes a Glossary of terms that may be useful.
I would also highlight the Support Handbook for the educational tools and I would stress the importance of consulting it before starting Beldur Barik processes with youth groups, as it provides a basic conceptual and theoretical framework and guidelines for addressing the contents.
This year, like last year, the Sinopsi Lehiaketa will be held as a preliminary step to the Lehiaketa, in which young people are encouraged to send the first draft of their work, thus promoting a process-based workflow. In addition, we are going to strengthen the content on social media and the programme's website, especially during the summer.
