Updates on "The Now and the Future" project! Successful workshop in Brazil!
Child Rights Connect (CRCnct) was in Brazil in July to implement the project "The Now and the Future: Advancing the Rights, Empowerment and Protection of Child Human Rights Defenders". The initiative, led by Zsuzsanna Rutai, the Child Empowerment and Safeguarding Officer of Child Rights Connect, trains child human rights defenders to act more safely in the promotion of their rights.
The project is being developed based on experience in four countries: Brazil, Togo, Moldova and Thailand. The first meetings were held in São Paulo on 15, 17 and 18 July.
"It will be a curriculum based on non-formal education, so it's learning by doing. It will definitely not consist of formal lectures, long texts or books that are mandatory for children, but composed of interactive activities that help them know their rights and defend their interests in a safe and meaningful way", explains Zsuzsanna in an interview with Agência Brasil.
"It is necessary to have well-educated, empathetic and really confident in what they do young generations, believing in democracy, human rights, protecting the land, respecting the environment. Therefore, if we really want to leave a legacy, we have to raise the next generations", she says.
In Brazil, the initiative was carried out in partnership with the Alana Institute. Thirteen children and adolescents participated in this exclusive event alongside more than 20 adults who received training on how to protect children and adolescents who are human rights defenders. The workshop aimed to educate participants about their rights and protection measures, emphasising the significance of their contributions and demonstrating how their daily actions can impact the defence of their rights and those of others.
"Children and adolescents have increasingly acted as human rights defenders. It is very important that children are strengthened in their capacities to act as defenders, as activists, as people engaged in social causes and it is also important to train adults so that they know how to welcome these children who have specific vulnerabilities because they are in environments that are not prepared to receive them", says Sofia Antonelli Amaral, government relations analyst at the Alana Institute, and who accompanied the workshops.
The initiative will now continue to be implemented in other countries, with completion scheduled for March 2027. To learn more about the 'The Now and the Future' project, please visit global-chrds-project-factsheet-toc-1.pdf.
Child Rights Connect would like to thank the Alana Institute for hosting and helping to organise this workshop!
Leave A Comment