By Hagar Saeed The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in co-operation with the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM) and the Ministry of Higher Education, launched the first national campaign against school bullying earlier this month with the aim of keeping children safe from physical and psychological harm. School bullying is defined as aggressive attitudes directed deliberately by one or more pupils against another pupil repeatedly over time. These negative attitudes include various forms of verbal abuse like threats, rebukes, teasing and insults. They also involve physical contact such as beatings, pushing and kicking. Such acts can drive the victim in to self-isolation, depression, and sometimes into the grip of suicidal thoughts. The campaign, which began earlier this month will end in the first week of October.It comprises regular activity on the campaign's digital platforms to send advice and tips to children, teachers and parents on ways to counter bullying. "The goal of the campaign is to raise awareness of the dangers of bullying among schoolchildren. It also aims to highlight the role of teachers and parents in eradicating the phenomenon," Azza El Ashmawi, Secretary General of NCCM, told The Egyptian Gazette. "The campaign urges children, parents, and caregivers to speak up against bullying in educational and non-educational settings and seek guidance from trained professionals through the national Child Helpline 16000. This provides 24/7 support.It is an active channel on which to report severe cases in which the safety of a child is at risk," she said. The campaign calls on young people in Egypt to post the hashtag #I'm Against Bullying, and share their own experiences and vision to confront the phenomenon. The famous Egyptian comedy actor Ahmed Helmy posted a video on the campaign's digital platform and related how he himself got exposed to bullying when he was still at school. Through his video, Helmi directed a message to children getting exposed to bullying by telling them to turn all the words that bring them down into energy, strength and toughness and never let people get them down. He also advised parents to be their children's friends because it is essential for schoolchildren to talk about what was said to them, who bullied them, whether at school or in a club. In order to show the traumatised psychological impact of bullying on children, a woman called Souad Mohamed told the story of her 12-year-old son who committed suicide two years ago when he was regularly bullied by some of his schoolmates. "My son Ayad had scars on his face and feet as a result of a fire which broke out in our house five years ago. Ayad was bullied by his schoolmates, who ridiculed his disfigured face. My son, who hated his deformed facial features could not bear the insults.So he committed suicide," Souad Mohamed said. Millions of social media users sympathised with her. According to a study by the NCCM and UNICEF which covered three Egyptian governorates, children face the highest rate of violence at home and then at school. The study reported that between 29and 47 per cent of children aged between 13 and 17 face violence by their peers. Mahmaoud Ghalab, a professor of Sociology at Cairo University,explained why some schoolchildren bully their peers. "The child bully is being bullied himself.They lack the attention or affection of caregivers, who are usually the parents. They might be bullied by an elder sibling or their own aggressive parents," he told The Egyptian Gazette.
