As part of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, tertiary students from the Fiji Institute of Technology (FIT) and the University of the South Pacific (USP) were challenged by UN WOMEN Pacific’s Regional Programme Director, Ms Elizabeth Cox to form a network of students and to advocate to end violence against women in the Pacific.

United Nations agencies and Fiji Women’s Rights Movement (FWRM) cooperatively provided tertiary student volunteers from USP and FIT sensitization in the areas of Gender, Human Rights and Ending Violence Against Women. The purpose of the half day interactive workshop was to strengthen the participatory process of youths and empower young people to as volunteers and advocates for future Violence Against Women campaign activities. The workshop was a follow up activity to the International Women’s Day Campaign carried out in March 2009 when an overwhelming response was shown by university students in Fiji to become advocates to end violence against women.

The workshop consisted of four sessions; Gender Basics; Gender Based Violence; UN Agency work related to gender equality; and peer presentations on volunteer experiences. Packets were provided to students who attended the workshops and FWRM, UNAIDS, UNICEF, ILO, WHO and UN WOMEN staff presented to students at FIT.

Each workshop was well attended with 30 students attending at FIT and 29 students attending at USP. The student volunteers showed enthusiasm for the presentations, actively participating in the discussions and commenting that they would like to see more activities for volunteers in the future. UN agencies in Suva will continue to offer the Introduction to Gender, Human Rights and Ending Violence Against Women workshops to tertiary students in 2010.