A troubling number of Kosovar students experience sexual assault and harassment, with some coming to view it as a normalised part of daily life. For many girls, the undermining of dignity starts at a young age, often through verbal harassment on the street. While such behaviour is visible, it is rarely challenged. In schools, there is no curricula that address sex education, sexual harassment, its prevention or treatment, or sexual violence. At home, these issues are often not discussed and considered taboo.
Determined to address this issue, the NGO Gruja Hyjnore stepped in to raise awareness about sexual harassment and violence both inside and outside schools, while also encouraging parents to break the silence by speaking openly with their children.
Gruja Hyjnore’s initiative was carried out through a series of targeted activities, starting with introductory sessions for 60 parents and teachers on the importance of integrating sex education into school curricula and advocating for the designation of a responsible contact person for students and teachers to report harassment. The sessions emphasised the crucial role of parents in supporting their children, including by discussing sensitive topics openly, providing emotional support, and reporting incidents promptly, toward ensuring that silence does not allow harassment or abuse to continue. Almost all participating parents agreed that sex education should be included in the school curriculum, stressing that children should receive accurate and reliable information from professionals rather than seeking it themselves from sources of varying quality and reliability.
The initiative then moved into classrooms, where 11 awareness-raising workshops were conducted across nine schools in the municipality of Gjilan, reaching a total of 401 students. The workshops covered sexual harassment as well as topics such as puberty, bodily changes and sexually transmitted infections. Lecturers from Gruja Hyjnore noted that most students had very limited basic knowledge about sexuality and biological development. While these topics are included in the biology and psychology curricula, students reported that they are often skipped or left for at-home studies. The lecturers also observed that cultural and social norms strongly affected students’ willingness to discuss these issues, with openness generally higher in urban schools compared to rural ones.
Aside from sessions with teachers, parents and students, Gruja Hyjnore also conducted a social media campaign promoting sex education, that reached nearly 70,000 people in Gjilan and surrounding villages.
The initiative concluded with a roundtable bringing together institutions, parents and youth, highlighting the importance of sex education, parental involvement and early prevention. Participants praised Gruja Hyjnore for raising awareness on these issues, particularly sexual harassment, with several emphasising that sex education must address harassment and abuse, not just sexual health.
Step by step, silence gave way to dialogue, and taboos began to break. What was once unspeakable became a shared responsibility. Gruaja Hyjnore’s initiative started transforming silence into dialogue, replacing stigma with knowledge and protection.
Gruaja Hyjnore’s initiative “Sex Education as a Subject in Primary and Secondary Schools” was carried out with support from the Kosovo Women’s Network’s (KWN) Kosovo Women’s Fund (KWF), financed by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) and co-financed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), in the amount of €4,975, from October 2021 to May 2022. The initiative contributed directly to KWN’s Programme “Gender Transformative Education”.
