What:
- Laura and Patrick, youth leaders with and without intellectual disability (ID) from Special Olympics Vietnam, designed an anti-bullying app for students with special educational needs (SEN).
- The app helps students with SEN communicate their feelings, report bullying or other social challenges and puts them in contact with school staff where necessary.
- By promoting their app and conducting a workshop that sensitizes students to the impacts of bullying, Laura and Patrick contributed to a school-wide movement against bullying.
Why/How:
- 1 in 5 students (20%) are reported to be bullied in school. These only include cases that are actually reported.
- Children with disabilities (physical, intellectual, emotional and/or sensory) are at higher risk of being bullied.
- Children who are bullied can experience negative physical, social, emotional, academic and mental health issues.
- This is not acceptable. Schools should be a safe environment for students to grow and learn.
- Having observed patterns of bullying in their own school, Laura and Patrick were motivated to start this project. They worked together with their school’s Health and Wellness Counsellor, Principal, Board of Directors and other partners including Uni Media and the app developers to complete the project.
Achievements:
- 2 big events were held to promote the app and engage the entire school (450 students) through anti-bullying awareness activities. Students with intellectual disabilities were also invited to participate in safeguarding training.
- Facebook posts by Special Olympics Vietnam, the school, parents, teachers and friends helped spread the word and promote inclusion to a wider community.
- Through the experience of working on the project, the youth leaders learned to collaborate with one another regardless of disability. They also developed skills in app design, victim care, public speaking and engagement of student and adult stakeholders.
What we learnt:
- It is important to empower project leaders with ID to execute project tasks independently or with support, rather than completing tasks on their behalf.
- Considering the needs of the target audience is key. The app’s design and function were carefully adapted to suit students with special needs.
- Engagement of both internal and external stakeholders (such as wellbeing staff, school management and app developers) was necessary for the development and publicity of the app.
- Be clear and strong in terms of what’s BEST!
B – Believe: What makes you believe for the success of the project?
E – Eye: What is your detailed picture for the success of the project?
S – Strong why: What motivates you to complete this project?
T – To do list: What does the to do list looks like and how can you complete it?
“Through this project, I have matured and learnt a lot on how to build an app, how to treat others, how to talk to and help a bullied victim. A lot of students have reached out to me, after we first promoted the app to our school, to seek advice on their bullying problems. Every time that happened, I was so happy to be someone they could talk to and seek help from… My passion for this project comes from my understanding of the importance of healthy minds and effective communications in school and I truly want to help others in need. Thank you to the Special Olympics organization, Ms. Tam, Patrick and everybody for giving me this opportunity to help the world become a better place.” – Laura, Special Olympics Vietnam youth leader
“I felt very proud of this project because it helped me grow up and learn a lot in the process of designing the app such as recording, designing the pictures using Photoshop, meeting the acting principal, the counsellor and the student support program coordinator… I hope that this app can be useful in the future especially to the ones who get bullied a lot in their life.” – Patrick, Special Olympics Vietnam youth leader
Links:
Video
Facebook post
LinkedIn post