Sharjah: «Gulf»
Hanadi Al Yafei, Director of the Child Safety Department of the Sharjah Supreme Family Affairs Council, stressed the importance of paying attention to the psychological and behavioral damage that bullying causes to children and adolescents, which can lead the child to lose self-confidence and it can negatively affect his social behavior, which requires strengthening the fight against bullying and stepping up awareness efforts so that resistance to this negative behavior becomes a social culture that protects his victims and spread awareness among children and adolescents on how to avoid it and on the mechanism of dealing with it, either by not being exposed to it or by not practicing it with others, which requires that parents play their role in correcting their children’s behavior and in following their academic performance.
She stressed that National Bullying Prevention Week comes this year with the slogan “With Kindness, We Make a Difference” to reflect the overall efforts that have been made throughout the year, with a focus on encouraging children to talk about social bullying in particular, and to address this behavior in order to achieve a bullying free society, through increased awareness and outreach of victims of bullying about what they are exposed to by talking to those they trust, because this is an essential step to avoid this negative behaviour, leading to the dissemination and encouragement of positive values in the school environment to reduce bullying behaviours.
This occurred in the context of the administration’s participation in the Sixth National School Bullying Prevention Week, organized by the Ministry of Education, under the patronage of H.H. Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, President of the General Union of Women, President of the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood, Supreme President of the Foundation for Family Development «Mother of the Emirates»», in collaboration with partners from federal and local authorities.
The Department of Child Safety has organized a series of social bullying prevention awareness seminars targeting private school students in the Emirate of Sharjah and Dubai, and participating in the “Smile” initiative in collaboration with the Authority for the development of Sharjah’s commerce and tourism, as part of the Department’s contribution to the revitalization of the National Bullying Prevention Week, from 14 to 20 November.
The media plan of the week focused on the topic of social bullying in the school environment, to raise awareness of students and parents about bullying and ways to deal with it in the right way, instill confidence in students’ hearts and enhance the role of social responsibility in providing an environment safe education.
Media messages included highlighting bullying as a negative phenomenon that requires victim support and guidance from the bully, clarifying the role of parents in supporting their children and preventing bullying, and stepping up social workers’ efforts to provide support to students in dealing with this behavior.
