East Africa

[If my friend was sexually assaulted], I would calm her down. I would tell her that everything will be fine. Just to console her and give her encouragement. I mean, I wouldn’t obviously force her…

[If someone from our region experiences sexual assault], try to listen to them. I think it’s very important to listen to the situation and not just judge it, you know, as it is. Listen to…

Participant 1: Offer them counselling because, in Africa, you can’t find counselling. Participant 2: Not even – don’t put counselling in such a way, because we don’t really understand counselling. Facilitator: Okay, maybe for us,…

Participant 2: “Counselling” is such a formal word. Like, white people are used to counselling- we are not. We don’t have counsellors. So the way we talk about it is when we are at school,…

Participant 1: If I say that somebody is looking at me weirdly, I know…I feel like…not that everyone from Africa has been raped, but definitely, somebody has already gone through that. Facilitator: Or, you know…

Participant 1: The Mount could learn more about culture, to know how to deal with African students. Facilitator: Like how to make you, maybe, open up more? [laughter] Participant 1: Yeah, like, more comfortable. […]…

Participant 2: Say you are the only African in the class. If something happens, you don’t even know how to say it because you feel – Participant 1: like, “oh, I am the only African.”…

Where it [the policy] says, “the incident does not fit policy,” how would I know if something doesn’t fit the policy? […] Let’s say in the case of groping, what you call groping might not…

I think my brothers would like the policy, because they know how guys are. So, personally, they [would] think the policy is better if it is applied, because then I could walk around safely. […]…

I feel like the most important thing is more support for the victim, because at some point, they don’t even want somebody to be touching them. They just want somebody to be listening to them,…