Oxfam, alongside groups including the Shaira Ali Cultural Center and the Association of Santa Tecla Women, educated students about basic rights and violence prevention in urban and rural schools across El Salvador – even ones in violent areas like Ahuachuapan. With Oxfam’s help, these schools developed student committees to promote financial literacy (which help young women be more independent), as well as ‘’coexistence’’ committees which raise rights awareness and teach students how to resolve conflict and prevent violence. A school director, Joel Mejia, had a lot of good things to say about the project outcomes, ‘’I’ve seen substantial changes. The students wash their hands, the boys respect the girls, and there has been a substantial reduction in conflicts at the school.’’ Karla Gutierrez, a Shaira Ali volunteer, noted the project enabled girls to ‘’now recognize when they are about to suffer harassment or violence, that when there’s touching involved, it’s a crime–especially when it’s a school director or teacher harassing them. They know that’s wrong.’’ Oxfam and other groups, through the Una vide diferente (A different life) program, also
trained 360 women in human rights and bolstered a national women-led human rights network that could push for legal reforms. The program also trained 165 government officials (including judges and police officers) from 2005 to 2007 and in 2008, 45 women legislators, in preventing violence. The women legislators later drafted the Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Eradication bill (Oxfam 2018, Oxfam 2010).