School bullying and online bullying are not an isolated phenomenon, they are everywhere - in every country, society and social group.
Every year, on the last Wednesday in February, the school's anti-bullying day, known as Pink T-Shirt Day, is celebrated. On this day, everyone involved in the topic dresses in pink to express their position.
The initiative was first held in 2007 in Canada as a protest organized by two students - David Shepherd and Travis Price.
Sensitive to injustice and intolerant of forms of violence, young people were shocked by an incident they witnessed: older students mocked and severely harassed a ninth-grader wearing a pink polo shirt. Impressed by what they saw, the next day they bought and handed out fifty pink T-shirts to their classmates to express their support for the bullied student. The initiative was soon taken up by thousands of schools around the world, with the "pink T-shirt" becoming a leading symbol of the campaign.
This year the volunteers of the Youth Club "To be friends", with a big heart, join the initiative by uniting with other youth organizations, namely BRCY - Pernik, Municipal Youth Council - Pernik and Safer Internet Center, supported by Pernik Municipality will dedicate the entire month of February to preventing school bullying as a key to a fearless school.
Pink T-shirt Day unites youth organizations on the path of developing intolerance among students to the manifestations of school bullying, as the organizations provide a broad amount of joint initiatives. The activities will be aimed mainly at children and young people, but also at parents, teachers, and civil society, and the aim is to raise public awareness and sensitivity on the topics of school bullying and cyberbullying with a focus on violence prevention.
The program envisages a series of events to be implemented in the online and offline space, aimed at young people, including themed space for pink t-shirts to leave messages, a series of discussions with students and teachers on the topic of bullying and how to prevent it, as well as media appearances, aiming to draw the attention of citizens and young people to the topic and to the necessary steps to build a harmonious and protected space, as a key to a school without fear of violence.
With specially developed visions and messages, young men and women will disseminate information about the types of school bullying, ways to protect themselves and opportunities to seek help.
More than 140 countries on all continents will celebrate International Safer Internet Day for the 19th time on February 8. This year Safe Internet Center featuring The Youth Panel at the Center for Safe Internet will organize and lead discussion panels on various aspects of the prevention of online violence and aggression, with the aim of more effective prevention of violence and misinformation on the Internet.
The final event will take place on 23rd February 2022 (the last Wednesday of February) on the territory of a public institution, where students will have the opportunity to participate in interesting and instructive quiz game on the topic of school bullying, enjoy a lot of music, eating and unique prizes. The aim is in this way to stimulate the discussion on topics related to violence and we will provide an interactive opportunity for participation.
Celebrating Pink T-shirt Day reminds us that bullying at school exists and encourages us to think about how we can all stand up together - children, young people, teachers, parents, and the whole of civil society EVERY DAY. It will be good to have a friendly and good school environment, built on the basis of beautiful and harmonious relationships.
The campaign is part of the municipal annual youth plan 2022, developed in implementation of the Youth Act, in accordance with the objectives of the current National Youth Strategy (2021-2030). It is carried out in the context of one of the main priority areas of the Municipality of Pernik for the coming year, namely: 2022 - European Year of Youth.
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For twenty-two years now, the PULSE Foundation has been developing a program for prevention of violence through non-formal education, conducting youth activities, raising awareness by organizing campaigns, trainings, conferences against violence, etc.
The PULSE Foundation's prevention program aims to prevent, intervene and eliminate all forms of violence and exploitation of children so that they have a better future and in turn grow as valuable people and defenders of human rights.