MORE than 1,000 students are taking part in an anti-bullying week at the Bahrain Bayan School (BBS), Isa Town. They will be wearing pink as it concludes today as a stance against bullying.

The tradition of wearing pink goes back two years to when two Canadian teenagers were praised across America for the way they turned the tide against bullies, who picked on a fellow student for wearing the colour pink.

As a result, February 27 is celebrated worldwide as an anti-bullying day.

Middle school counsellor Reema Fakhro said the week was dedicated to raising awareness against bullying.

"It is a huge issue and you really cannot get a message across to 1,000 plus students in a day," she said.

"They will solidify their ideas over the week and get to practise their skills doing plays and art," she said.

It is the first time that the school has organised an anti-bullying week. She hoped other schools would join in the future to make it a standard practice across Bahrain.

"Bullying is a problem across the world, not just in Bahrain. In the Western world there is the tendency to speak about your problems," she told the GDN.

"We want to encourage the same openness here so that someone who is bullied can feel confident enough to stand up to it."

Ms Fakhro said that the week was directed more to the junior and primary school children, as they were exposed to bullying at an ever increasing rate. She said a lot of the senior students also found it useful.

"Sometimes parents or teachers won't see or know what's going on, especially as children try to handle things themselves as they get older.

"That is why we have been trying to teach them that they should be the hero and stand up for the bullied. If you are a bystander you are just as guilty as the bully," said Ms Fakhro.

Apart from teaching them to stand up for their fellow students, they have also been involved in conflict resolution role-play, talks on bullying, signing an anti-bullying wall and even analysed a scene from Mean Girls to better understand why bullying takes place.

"Even if we just reach 10 children, it will make a huge difference," said Ms Fakhro.

"If we can make people more aware of bullying, it will make us all to react differently to the problem," she said.