Anti-Bullying Program

• With this program kids learn to understand that they don’t need to work hard to be accepted and for people to like them, they first need to work on liking themselves first, because people like people who has confidence and who likes themselves.
• Through the program kids will firstly learn to understand the effect of bullying and then to identify and understand the three components of bullying. Namely, the bully, the bullied and the witness.
• Children who participate in the program will come to understanding that both the bully and the bullied have unmet needs. The bullied have the need to feel connected and that they belong and are significant, whereas the bully have the need to feel important and significant, as well as the need to stand up for themselves.
• Through the program kids will learn the five powerful anti-bullying steps. This will aid them to deal with rejection and it will help them become stronger. It not only teaches children to feel great about themselves, but also how to love themselves and grow stronger from within. Furthermore, it teaches them their own value.
• The program also aims in helping kids understand that they not only can be actively involved to help stopping the bullying, but also to allow those kids who are being bullied to enjoy school. They grow stronger within and learn to love themselves, becoming more self-sufficient. They learn how to stand up for themselves through the five anti-bulling steps.   They learn to stand up against bullies and thus taking away the power from the bullies. A very important part of school is to feel liked and that they belong. But when children are being bullied or witness bullying it breaks down their confidence and their self-esteem. They end up feeling that they can’t speak up or stand up for themselves, thus empowering the bullying to continue.
• Through the Anti Bullying Program three very powerful truths are learnt:
  • There is power in learning to stand up for yourself.
  • There is power in learning not to feed of others.
  • There is power in reporting bullying and not just walking away
• All the learning is done through fun activities focussing on gaining understanding and growing as an individual.
• Children need to know that they are responsible for each other. The bullied need to understand that bullies also have needs, whereas bullies need to know that bullying is unacceptable. Kids who are being bullied, as well as those witnessing it, need to stop telling bullies that it’s ok and giving them power.

There are many children who are bullied, either because of their looks, interests, clothing or backgrounds and families. This causes stress and anxiety. These kids often end up not wanting to go to school anymore and become more relaxed during the holidays. However, they start getting anxious as soon as they know it’s time to go back to school. A small percentage of kids intervene while a very large percentage of kids report that they are feeling stressed because they either see bullying or are being bullied themselves. These kids are stuck attending school, they have the disadvantage of saying that they are stressed, but still must go to school and their speaking up sometimes even gets brushed off. Furthermore, schools need to select an adult, either parent or teacher whom they can trust to deal with these situations promptly and affectively and educate children to seek out this adult and report the bullying.

My heart’s desire with the Anti Bullying Program is that it would also help the mothers of those children. They need to know that there is help available to their kids when being bullied, witnessing bullying or even when their child is the bully. Moms need to know that we are there to empower our children through the five steps to grow stronger from within and stand up against bullying and also to help the bullies to understand that there is help out there and they don’t have to hurt other kids in order to gain power and feel better about themselves, but rather that they learn to love themselves.