The Arbitration and Conciliation Center of the Bogota Chamber of Commerce will launch the First Aid Kit to prevent and accompany cases of bullying and cyberbullying, a first aid tool with educational and didactic material for prevention, identification of alleged situations and protocols to activate care routes. The "first aid kit" was specially designed for parents, students and members of the educational community.
The first aid kit is a comprehensive tool, with didactic material, regulations, bullying and harassment test and attention routes through the Conflict Resolution Mechanisms.
With the "First Aid Kit" it will be possible to identify negative, intentional, methodical and systematic behaviors of aggression, intimidation, humiliation, ridicule, defamation, coercion, deliberate isolation, threat or incitement to violence. It also generates alerts about any form of psychological, verbal, physical or electronic abuse against children or adolescents, whether their aggressors are peers or people with whom they have an asymmetrical relationship.
According to studies conducted by the International NGO Bullying Without Borders, by the year 2021, 8,981 serious cases of bullying were reported; figures that, unfortunately, indicate that Colombia is one of the countries with the highest number of cases of bullying in the world. The study also warned about the increase in cases of harassment and abuse present in social networks, especially Facebook and Twitter; networks in which there is no distinction between minors and adults. In these environments, young people are insulted, threatened and incited to suicide. Situations that occur permanently, regardless of time, age or gender.
The kit was developed by the HERMES program of the CCB's Arbitration and Conciliation Center, which leads school mediation with students. Its methodology is proactive and participatory. The program seeks that students learn to solve, from an early age, their conflicts and avoid physical and verbal aggressions. In this way, the Center has an impact on preventing the conflict from escalating to instances such as bullying.
This program, a pioneer in the field of school mediation, was born in 2001 and, since then, has become a national and international reference for conflict management in school scenarios. HERMES is present in 328 educational institutions in Bogota and the region, and in 2021 achieved the training and certification of 3609 actors as school mediators between teachers and students.