TO PROMOTE safe spaces and gender sensitivity in the Loyola Schools (LS), organizations in the community such as the Sanggunian Commission on Sexual Misconduct and Violence (CASMV) and TUGON Ateneo have organized different events and initiatives promoting gender education throughout the months of March and April.
UGDO Director Maria Elissa J. Lao elaborated that such efforts for gender development are key to fulfilling the University’s strategic goals, which spells out the plans of University leaders and representatives to be implemented over the next decade.
“The LS is dedicated to the building of a gender inclusive, gender responsive, and gender safe community for all by creating an enabling environment, developing transformative practices, and providing adequate responses,” stated a 2018 Office of the Vice President for the Loyola Schools memo, which laid the groundwork of the University’s efforts for a gender safe community.
Awareness among students
Aligned with the advocacies of UGDO, CASMV collaborated with the LS Gender Hub to help promote Gender Sensitivity Trainings (GSTs) on campus.
To orient freshmen with gender-related offices, Co-Commissioners Yuki Abion and Gabby Taruc prepared a Gender Safe Spaces plenary session through the Introduction to Atenean Culture and Traditions (InTACT) on March 18.
Additionally, TUGON President Trini Daco also collaborated with the LS Gender Hub in bringing more gender-sensitive initiatives to the LS community, such as those in observance of the National Child Sexual Abuse Awareness Month for the month of March.
Communal growth
Speaking of the long-term effects that these efforts hope to achieve, Abion stated that the main goal of their gender sensitivity-related programs is to articulate “gender sensitivity” within campus.
Pursuant to this, Taruc also emphasized that more members of the LS community should understand that the advocacy focuses on being survivor-centric. As such, the community should work together as a whole and be patient with those students who want to learn more, added Daco.
Road to inclusivity
Moving forward, Abion and Taruc invited students to commemorate Sexual Assault Awareness Month this April. CASMV will be hosting their third year of “Kaagapay sa Pagpatuloy” throughout the month, inviting students to submit “messages of love and words of affirmation” to survivors of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV).
Additionally, Abion and Taruc stated that CASMV is currently preparing more activities for students to participate in from April 24 until 28. They said that they will particularly talk about the Media Representation of SGBV, as well as the discourse surrounding it.
They also call on students to join them in their advocacy for gender inclusivity and make the community more welcoming to all members of the Atenean population.
In this spirit, Lao added, “[In the future,] I’d like to see more programs towards inclusion, women in leadership and continue the refinement of the onboarding and [Gender Sensitivity Training, or GST] for different sectors of the University.”
With reports from Brianna Denise Tan
