”I was 5 years old when it all started. I was in a Catholic school in France, and kids made fun of me. They called me  “Arab”, “useless”, “dumb””, says Stephanie, 32 . “They insulted me on a daily basis, and sometimes they turned violent. One day for example someone shut me down in the toilets. I used to tell my mum I was sick to avoid going to school.”

Like Stephanie, one in 2 children in Lebanon have been bullied. Save The Children NGO defines bullying as “ repetitive behaviours of harassment, intimidation and social exclusion of the victim that implicate diverse forms of physical, psychological, or verbal violence. It decreases children’s educational attainment and disrupts their social development.”

To the parents of children who they believe might be bullied,  Save The Children recommends to talk to them, encourage them to express themselves, ask them if they have been bullied, and make them understand that bullying is never acceptable and definitively not “normal”.

According to Save The Children, one in 4 parent have denounced bullying. If bullying is not addressed quickly and properly, the impact on a child’s mental health can unfortunately last for years.

Source: Save The Children NGO