"UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, supports the identification, counselling and referral to services for all survivors, including men and boys. The role model programme seeks to encourage men to challenge sexual harassment and violence in exile, and rethink complex gender issues which sometimes lead to violent disputes. “We need to educate these young men. So we need to explain what we’re doing and what they can do,” says Mohammed, 23, another role model volunteer in the settlements, where residents are safe, housed and fed, but have few opportunities to work or study formally. “Many of these young men say: We are useless!” Mohammed says. “Many are uneducated. They feel they can do things with a young woman … and feel they can get away with it.” Mohammed is part of a group of five young men in their late teens and twenties, working alongside an imam in the settlement to challenge these attitudes. The young men, who are all community volunteers, are trained to identify issues arising from domestic violence, early marriage, dowry payments, polygamy and aggressive behaviour towards women. The were trained through role-playing as perpetrators, victims and bystanders, according to UNHCR programme coordinator Jahidur Rahman. “Our role in this was to show how to change bystanders into change makers,” Rahman says. The programme is new and, to launch it, the organizers set up meetings in mosques and community centres. The young role models were encouraged to work through sports, as a path to build trust with the community. In a direct outreach to women and girls who make up more than half the population of the camps, a network of refugee women volunteers go door-to-door throughout the settlement. If they suspect evidence of sexual violence, they contact camp authorities and have the victim moved to a woman-friendly space. “I heard about the discussions concerning sexual violence, and I wanted to get involved,” Imam Mohammed says. “The camp staff asked me to identify the biggest problems in the community. From the list, I saw a major problem of child marriage, and a rising divorce rate. I sat down with community leaders, and we prepared a document for the camp authorities. I included the Holy Koran, which prohibits violence against wives, and which discourage dowries when there is no money.” Early marriage and dowries are often linked. Parents who arrange the marriage of a daughter are relieved from supporting her, but the price is a dowry. And money in the camps is scarce. Ahmed, another role model leader, explains how the process becomes enmeshed in violence..."