The six municipal daycare centres have been working on the topic of children's rights for some time now. At the request of the daycare centre managers, the KiBiSS project, AQuiS GmbH, coordinated the "prevent me - play and prevention" measure, which relates to the UN children's right to protection from exploitation, abuse and violence.
The financial support was provided by the "Partnership for Democracy" of the Saarpfalz district as part of the federal programme "Live Democracy!
The speaker, Marie Marschall, is a qualified social pedagogue, sex educator and state-recognised clown actress. Her target groups in several sessions were 4 to 6-year-old daycare centre children as well as daycare centre staff and parents.
In the clownish play "From head to toe to tip of the nose", the lively clown Mirzel gave over 100 children playful and humorous impulses on the important basics of preventing sexualised violence and its principles. Using music, clowning and puppetry, the children learnt to name and differentiate feelings in case studies. This also applies to the other prevention principles on the topics of touching, secrets, getting help, setting boundaries and body awareness. In particular, the principle "I'll tell you one thing: my body belongs to me!" was cited by the children at every possible opportunity.
In the team training sessions, the professionals received age-specific sexual education expertise in order to gain confidence and sensitivity in dealing with children's sexuality and sexual boundary violations. The professionals were grateful for the playful methods for dealing with children's rights in everyday life. The training courses imparted up-to-date specialist knowledge and created a space for discourse and discussion of taboos in favour of child protection.
Parents were given basic knowledge about psychosexual development, important prevention principles and information about prevention theatre at parent events. There were lively discussions and exchanges.
The prevention project had a hugely positive impact and the topics will resonate in the daycare centres for a long time to come.