In May 2023 Siprofis ran training on ‘Gender Based Violence’ in partnership with The Steve Sinnott Foundation. The Teachers Syndicate of Santiago (Siprophis) are a Teachers Union in Cape Verde who have heard about the work we are supporting in Sierra Leone, The Gambia and Haiti. Ann Beaty, our CEO, met with them last year in Cape Verde when she met teacher unions in Senegal as well.

This training was reported in the news released on Inforpress (the official news agency of Cape Verde) in May 2023:

The Teachers Syndicate of Santiago (Siprophis) promotes this Saturday, a training on ‘Gender Based Violence’, at the Cor-de-Rosa house in Plato, aiming to raise awareness of the practice of violence prevention throughout the educational sector and to reinforce the teacher's knowledge regarding issues of Violence Based on Gender (GBV) and to contribute to improving its capacity to act in prevention.

The president of Siprofis, Abraão Borges, told Inforpress that with this initiative he intends to work on the prevention of violence through the training of the teachers themselves. Gender Based Violence, and any kind of violence in educational institutions, can be addressed as a brutality against the entire education system. He considered that for Cape Verde to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4), the country needs to have teachers trained in non-violence, in education institutions and schools.

At a time when much is said about violence in schools, SIPROFIS believes that one of the best ways to combat this scourge is through training teachers, so that they know the best strategies to deal with violence in the educational space. The training is aimed at teachers and kindergarten teachers.

According to the schedule, the training will be divided into three sections under the themes ‘The role of school in combating Gender-based Violence’, ‘Peace Promotion and Strategies to tackle gender violence in schools’, and ‘How to work for gender equality with students in school’.

Artur Correia, former national director of health, joins experts Silvina Andrade and a representative of the Cape Verdiana Association for the Fight Against Gender-Based Violence as speakers of this training, that will have Roda Moniz, Ricardino Rocha and representative of the Cape Verdiano Institute of Equality and Equity (ICIEG) in the role of speakers.

Abraão Borges said that Siprofis wants to involve all the organisations that fight against violence, and that the training of the city of Praia, which will cover the teachers of Praia, Old City and São Domingos, will continue on June 3, in Santa Cruz, extensive to teachers of São Miguel and St. Lawrence of the Organ.

The third phase is scheduled for the Tarrafal de Santiago council, in order to welcome the teachers from Tarrafal, Santa Catarina and São Salvador do Mundo.