“I Have the Right to Feel Safe” is a 10-week school-based program aimed at preventing childhood sexual violence by increasing awareness and teaching self-defense techniques.
Integrating guided modules on preventing childhood sexual violence into school curricula has led to positive results in multiple countries and at all schooling levels from pre-school to high school. Sessions typically involve peer learning, role-play, critical reflection, and other interactive strategies. Content on preventing childhood sexual violence may be embedded into different types of programs or approaches in schools.
Effectiveness of the intervention type |
Effective |
|
INSPIRE Pillar |
Education and life skills |
|
Evidence type |
Randomized Control Trial (RCT) |
Gender-based violence in schools is widespread in Ecuador. Between 2014 and 2024, the country recorded 6,438 reported cases of sexual violence in or around schools, according to administrative data from the Ministry of Education analyzed by Human Rights Watch. Among reported cases, the majority of victims were girls, while most perpetrators were men, 60% of whom were over 30 years old. The most common perpetrators were teachers (62%) and other students (29%) [1,2].
However, due to the lack of nationally representative population data on violence against children, these figures likely represent only a fraction of children’s experiences in Ecuador. From Violence Against Children and Youth Surveys (VACS) in other Latin American and Caribbean countries, we know that very few children seek help after experiencing sexual violence (7.9% of girls and 4.1% of boys in Honduras; 16.3% of girls and 0% of boys in El Salvador), meaning that many cases are never reported. The main reasons cited for not seeking services for childhood sexual abuse in these countries included fear of getting into trouble and not realizing the abuse was a problem.
Program participants display materials used in the workshop that read "My body is mine, and that is why I respect it and care for it". Credit: Fundación Azulado
“I Have the Right to Feel Safe” is a 10-week school-based program aimed at preventing childhood sexual violence by increasing awareness and teaching self-defense techniques. The program has been implemented in several Latin American countries [4], and Fundación Azulado adapted it for public elementary schools in low-income Andean communities in Ecuador.
The program offered weekly workshops for children aged 7 to 12, providing knowledge and tools related to self-protection and self-esteem, identifying a personal safety network of trusted adults, and distinguishing between good and bad secrets, using the book Uncomfortable Secrets. It also offered tools for saying “no” and for disclosing abuse.
Materials used in program workshops. Credit: Fundación Azulado
Before delivering the workshops, teachers attended training sessions with psychologists from Fundación Azulado, where they received guidance on how to carry out the program’s activities. After these sessions, teachers had one week to prepare their lessons. Each class followed a workbook provided to students, which included interactive activities and discussion prompts [4].
This school-based program was later transformed, adapted, and renamed “Mi Escudo” (My Shield). Additionally, the foundation developed a family version of the program, which is currently under review after its pilot evaluation. This version includes five family games designed to create spaces for parent-child conversations and reflection about sexual violence [5].
Materials from the "Mi Escudo" program. The sign on the left reads "Adults whom I trust". Credit: Fundación Azulado
Transformation and renaming to “Mi Escudo”
Following the positive results of the pilot program “I Have the Right to Feel Safe” (2016–2017), Fundación Azulado launched a comprehensive redesign to turn the intervention into a more structured, scalable, and sustainable tool.
In 2017, a specialized consultancy was carried out in collaboration with the design group Komité to transform the original manual into a series of structured, play-based activities aligned with the program’s learning and protection objectives.
This transformation included:
The development process took about a year, including curriculum design, technical validation, field testing in rural and urban schools, and printing materials.
As a result, the team renamed the program “Mi Escudo” (My Shield) to reflect a child-friendly metaphor of personal protection and empowerment.
Materials used in program workshops. Credit: Fundación Azulado
Development of the family version: “Mi Escudo – Family Toolkit”
Building on the school program’s success, Fundación Azulado later created a family version of “Mi Escudo”, aimed at facilitating safe conversations between caregivers and children on topics such as child sexual abuse, consent, and self-protection.
Key components of the Family Toolkit include:
Since 2010, Fundación Azulado has reached:
A randomized controlled trial evaluated the impact of “I Have the Right to Feel Safe” through questionnaires administered at three points in time, measuring children’s knowledge of self-protection against sexual abuse in seven schools in Machachi, Ecuador. Some results include:
(average scores) from 61.1% at the baseline to 69.9% in the final evaluation, and this knowledge was retained six months after the intervention ended.
in children’s understanding that “not all secrets should be kept,” between the baseline and final evaluations.
with 18.1% and 30.1% of children answering the question “Are abusers always strangers?” correctly in the initial and final evaluations, respectively [4].
These numbers reflect the direct impact of Azulado’s programs, including the school and family components of “Mi Escudo”, focused on preventing child sexual abuse through education, empowerment, and evidence-based practice [5].
Mural in one of the participating classes, which reads "to read", "to learn", "to sing" and "to share". Credit: Fundación Azulado
“I Have the Right to Feel Safe” is one of the first randomized controlled trials to demonstrate the impact of increasing children’s knowledge about child sexual abuse in Latin America in a school setting. The results show the program effectively increased awareness of self-protection strategies, including the crucial understanding that not all secrets should be kept.
Further research is needed to determine whether these knowledge gains lead to a decrease in child sexual abuse or an increase in reporting and disclosure.
[1] Human Rights Watch. (2024). “Like Patchwork” Ecuador’s Slow Progress Tackling and Preventing School-Related Sexual Violence. Human Rights Watch.
[2] Human Rights Watch. (2020).“It’s a Constant Fight”. School-Related Sexual Violence and Young Survivors’ Struggle for Justice in Ecuador. Human Rights Watch
[3] Fondo de las Naciones Unidas para la Infancia. (2020). Acción para poner fin a la explotación y el abuso sexual de las niñas, niños y adolescentes [Summary report]. Unicef.
[4] Bustamante, G., Andrade, M. S., Mikesell, C., Cullen, C., Endara, P., Burneo, V., Yépez, P., Ávila Saavedra, S., Ponce, P., & Grunauer, M. (2019). "I have the right to feel safe": Evaluation of a school-based child sexual abuse prevention program in Ecuador. Child abuse and neglect, 91, 31–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2019.02.009
[5] Fundación Azulado. Mi Escudo. https://azulado.org/mi-escudo/
Special thanks to Paulina Ponce (Director, Fundación Azulado), Gabriela Bustamante Callejas (Director, Master’s in Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Universidad San Francisco de Quito), and Soledad Avila (Academic Director, Fundación Azulado), for co-developing this case study.
For more information on this case study, you can reach out to Fundación Azulado at [email protected].