News and Press
New Movement Is Increasingly Influential as It Combats Violence Against Children
NEW YORK, May 2012 – In the four years since it was launched, the World Day of Prayer and Action for Children has been able to increase its activities more than threefold, according to the organization’s annual Evaluation Report, which was released today.
The World Day mobilized a handful of activities in 2008, the first year it observed World Day of Prayer and Action for Children. In 2009, the World Day was observed through 29 activities in 22 countries. Last year, there were 96 activities in 72 countries on 20 November 2011, when World Day was observed.
The majority of World Day activities – which included religious services, vigils, workshops, mobilization campaigns, and media coverage – highlighted the nonprofit’s new theme Stop Violence against Children, which was inspired by the work of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General on Violence against Children.
Last year, the World Day of Prayer and Action for Children further extended its reach by partnering with 1400 organizations, which held religious services, vigils or workshops. These activities – more than half of which were held in multi-faith settings – brought together nearly 230,000 people around the world. Thanks to the efforts of the World Day of Prayer and Action for Children partners, 159 organizations worked on 14 different campaigns to mobilize support to stop violence against children; promote birth registration; prevent child marriage; or promote positive parenting.
The Stop Violence against Children theme was officially launched at the United Nations on 24 June 2011 with an event sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Chile to the United Nations. As a lead-in to the 2011 World Day of Prayer and Action for Children, the United Nations hosted Stop Violence against Children through Positive Parenting on 18 November 2011. Two days later, on 20 November 2011, of the World Day of Prayer and Action for Children was observed in 72 countries – a record number.
Last year, the World Day provided children in scores of countries the opportunity to express their concerns. In Lebanon, 125 children replaced Members of Parliament for a day, so they could articulate their aspirations for peace in their region. In Romania, where bullying is a concern, a series of workshops allowed teenagers to explore ways to stop violence in their schools.
As it looks forward toward its fifth World Day, the World Day of Prayer and Action for Children hopes to expand the scope of its Stop Violence against Children theme by promoting the non-violent discipline of children. Local organizations said last year that they would welcome the opportunity to collaborate with religious communities in eradicating corporal punishment in the schools and home.
Less than five years after its first World Day, the World Day of Prayer and Action for Children has growing year-round influence and is inspiring other groups to develop local and regional plans to combat violence against children. This influence is a result of the World Day’s emphasis on partnering with world religious leaders and their communities, according to the group’s evaluation report.
Arigatou International, an international faith-based NGO (which was created in 1990 by the Japanese Buddhist organization Myochikai), founded the World Day of Prayer and Action for Children in 2008.
Click here to read the Executive Summary 2011: World Day Report.
World Day Video 2012
In 2011, The World Day of Prayer and Action galvanized tens of thousands of people in over 72 countries who committed to Stop Violence against Children. Our new video: World Day 2012 highlights our growing global movement to unite people of goodwill on Universal Children’s Day. Click here to view timely messages from our leadership, glance at lively photos from our partner’s events and learn how you can get involved in 2012.
Engaging Men and Boys in Gender Equality and Health
Promundo and MenEngage Alliance with support from UNFPA produced this Toolkit that addresses strategies and lessons learnt for Engaging Men and Boys in diverse themes such as Sexual and Reproductive Health; Maternal, Newborn and Child Health; Fatherhood; HIV and AIDS; Gender-based Violence; Advocacy and Policy, as well as addressing issues around Monitoring and Evaluation of this work. It includes tools and activities from organizations and programs from around the world which can be adapted and utilized by other organizations.
KENYA: Overcoming cultural obstacles to girls’ education in Dadaab
DADAAB, 11 April 2012 (IRIN) - A mix of cultural practices, such as early and forced marriage, as well as child labour, are depriving girls of education in the Dadaab refugee complex in eastern Kenya.
Out of Dadaab’s estimated population of 463,000 mainly Somali refugees, more than half are children under 18; of these about 38 percent attend school. The proportion of girls in the camps’ primary and secondary schools is 38 and 27 percent, respectively, according to the UN Refugee Agency. A third of girls aged between 5 and 13 in Dabaab go to school; for those aged 14 to 17, only one in 20 are enrolled.
Hawa Ahmed, who arrived in Dadaab about seven months ago with her six children, told IRIN that only her sons attend school.
Her two daughters stay at home cooking, washing utensils and fetching water. "[These are] already enough lessons as they learn how to keep a family," said Hawa as she plaited her daughter’s hair.
While boys are generally encouraged to attend school, barriers to girls’ education remain. A local saying among Somalis in Dadaab, for example, is `Gabar ama gunti rageed ama god hakaga jirto’ (a girl should either be married or in the grave).
Halima, 19, was married off to an older man in 2011 forcing her to drop out of high school at Dadaab’s Ifo camp. The now divorced single mother of one, said: "I am very disappointed. My life is almost destroyed. I can no longer go back to school because I have to take care of my child; I [have] lost my pride."
Many young girls at the camp are married off against their will to Somali men who come back from the USA and can afford to pay a huge dowry, according to officials.
Female genital mutilation/cutting and sexual and gender violence are also a problem, according to Faiza Dahir, an official with the gender and community development unit of NGO CARE.
A traditional Somali justice system known as ‘maslaha’ makes it difficult to trace the perpetrators of gender violence, "since they are protected under the traditional council, which solves all cases and withdraws complaints to the police."
Incentives
Meanwhile, aid agencies are coming up with incentive projects to help encourage girls to enrol at, and stay in, school.
The UN World Food Programme, for example, is providing tokens of half a kilogram of sugar to girls who attend 80 percent of classes every month. CARE is also supplying adolescent girls with sanitary pads to minimize drop-outs during menstruation.
Windle Trust Kenya is providing remedial and extra classes to girls in their final primary school year, while the African Development and Emergency Organization (ADEO) provides them with solar lamps.
Those who make it to school in the Ifo-2 and Kambioos extension camps (opened in 2011 to accommodate an influx of Somali refugees fleeing hunger and violence) face congested classrooms with limited facilities, with some forced to sit on the ground due to a lack of desks.
"We have struggled to solicit a learning space for the children and immediately established some primary schools in the Ifo extension camp to accommodate as many children as possible," Fanuel Rendiki, ADEO's education coordinator in Ifo camp, told IRIN.
Aid agencies such as CARE and Save the Children have also started an accelerated learning programme to train the refugees in basic numeracy and literacy.
The refugee youth umbrella organization is also helping to provide stationery. "We have distributed over 2,500 exercise books to children in Kambioos; we are also planning to do the same in Ifo-2," Aden Tarah, a member of the youth committee, told IRIN.
Launching of SRSG publication on "Tackling Violence in Schools"
Within the framework of the debate on the Rights of the Child in the Human Rights Council, the Office of the SRSG, with the support of the Government of Norway and in cooperation with the Council of Europe, Plan International and Child Helpline International, organized a panel discussion on Protecting children from violence in school – Bridging the gap between standards and practice. The event took place at the Human Rights Council, in Geneva, Room XXVII, on 6 March at 1.00 pm.
Education has a unique potential to create a positive environment in which non-violent behaviour can be learned, to provide skills that enable people to communicate, negotiate and support peaceful solutions to conflicts. However, in reality, within and around educational settings, both girls and boys continue to be exposed to violence, including verbal abuse, intimidation and physical aggression and, in some cases, sexual abuse.
A new publication entitled Tackling Violence in Schools: A Global Perspective was launched at the event. The objectives of the panel discussion were to raise awareness about the global reality, causes and consequences of violence faced by children in and around schools; to share good practices and strategies on how to prevent and address violence in and around schools and to discuss the importance of cooperation at local, national, regional and international levels.
More information on the side event: Protecting children from violence in school – Bridging the gap between standards and practiceClick here to read the original article.
