Children's rights

Shani: fighting against sexual violence towards children

The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom's Tanzania (FNF) office is launching an animated video series called Shani. The release of the video series will coincide with the annual 16 Days of Activism Against Violence Towards Women and Children campaign from 25 November - 10 December 2022. Shani is a young ordinary girl from a village in Tanzania. Her secret is that she has the ability to transform and access her superpowers to fight monsters who find sneaky ways to enter into their lives with an aim to cause harm. Animation was chosen as the mode of communication in this series because of the target audience who are child between 6 - 14 years.

The aim of the series is to deliver a complex social issue in a meaningful and effective way to young people and their families who represent diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. Data from the Tanzania Police Force indicates that 27 369 children were exposed to various kinds of violence between 2020 and 2022, which is an average of 1140 child abuse incidents per month. Tanzania's Community Development, Gender, Women and Special Groups ministry says at least 40 percent of cases of violence against children occur in schools and 60 percent from outside the learning environment, mostly in families and residential areas. The rising incidents of child abuse has resulted in the government making plans to tighten laws to protect children. In efforts to work with the Tanzanian government and to build up on previous work by the Foundation in Tanzania on the issue, FNF Tanzania will work with different stakeholders in the distribution of the animation series.

The video series will play in hospitals, schools and other facilities. Audio versions of the series have also been produced and will loop on buses in order to reach commuters during the 16 Days of Activism Against Violence Towards Women and Children.

The three episode titles are:

• EP01: Shani says no more to rape
• EP02: Shani stands firm against sexual abuse
• EP03: Shani fights to end child abuse

Further exhibition of the episodes will be released on the Friedrich Naumann Foundation Africa social media spaces.