The theme of Universal Children’s Day 2015 is “Promoting children’s welfare and children’s rights” and focuses on protecting and promoting children’s rights to survive and thrive while making sure their voices are heard and they reach their full potential.

“This year, I wish to emphasize the importance of ensuring that the commitments made by the international community to the world’s children are extended to a group of children who are often forgotten or overlooked: those deprived of their liberty. Far too many children languish in jail, mental health facilities or through other forms of detention. Some children are vulnerable because they are migrants, asylum seekers, homeless or preyed on by organized criminals. Whatever the circumstances, the Convention dictates that the deprivation of liberty must be a measure of last resort, and for the shortest time. Our aim must be to pursue the best interests of the child, prevent the deprivation of liberty and promote alternatives to detention.” – UN Secretary General Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The UN notes that this year’s observance falls at a time when 60 million people have been forcibly displaced from their homes, more than at any time since the Second World War. Almost half of those displaced are children fleeing oppression, terrorism, violence and other violations of their human rights. This observance also comes following the landmark adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which points the way towards peaceful, prosperous and inclusive societies for all. Achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals will depend on reaching the most vulnerable children.

Salesian Missions serves more than 1 million students at more than 5,300 primary and secondary schools — most located in some of the poorest places on the planet. It also provides nearly 1,000 vocational, pre-professional and training programs with an emphasis on serving vulnerable youth.

In honor of Universal Children’s Day, Salesian Missions is proud to highlight programs that focus on children’s rights education and provide for the protection, education and promotion of children’s welfare around the globe.

BENIN

Salesian missionaries around the globe are working to end child trafficking and other abuses by addressing their root causes. From identifying traffickers and holding them accountable to educating families about these predatory practices, missionaries are working to change local laws and strengthen legal protections for youth. Child victims of trafficking are forced into all types of labor including work on farms and in sweatshops, construction, hotels and restaurants as well as in private homes as domestic servants. Some are forced to beg on the streets and are used as child soldiers. Others are sold into sexual slavery and forced into prostitution. In Benin, a country in West Africa, Salesian missionaries are focusing their work on providing hope and healing to victims of child trafficking. The Don Bosco Center in Porto-Novo, the capital city of Benin, cares for more than 200 victims of child trafficking, many who have been sold into slavery by their parents for the equivalent of $30 or less. Nearly 40,000 girls and boys are forced into agricultural or domestic labor each year within the country of Benin alone.

More stories about the work of Salesian missionaries in Benin >

CAMBODIA

In a country where less than half of children finish primary school, more than 50,000 children have received the encouragement and support needed to complete an elementary education through the Don Bosco Children Fund since its inception in 1992. The Don Bosco Children Fund assists poor youth between the ages of 6 and 15 who are either unable to go to school or have had to drop out due to poverty. Through the fund’s program, youth not only receive support to continue their education, they also receive a monthly assistance package consisting of goods and cash. Social workers ensure that participants make progress and remain in school and those with special aptitude are further supported and encouraged to pursue college coursework. During the 2013-2014 school year, the Don Bosco Children Fund supported 4,426 students in Cambodia’s government-run schools and another 637 students in schools managed by Don Bosco Schools Battambang.

More stories about the work of Salesian missionaries in Cambodia >

INDIA

The Child Rights Education and Action Movement Project, launched in November 2012 by the Salesian-run Bangalore Rural Educational and Development Society, has started more than 200 child right’s clubs that are responsible for training more than 8,000 children and adults on the rights of children while providing resources to keep children safe. Child Rights Education and Action Movement Project staff have also provided human rights education in schools for thousands of children, youth and teachers as well as formed task forces, peer education programs and three regional networks and one state level network to address the issues of child labor. Early this year, 140 school children representing 63 human rights clubs from 55 schools participated in a two-day event in collaboration with juvenile justice professionals from the police and courts in the Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts of Andhra Pradesh. The event focused on the children’s right to be heard, a basic right established in India’s Convention on the Rights of the Child.

More stories about the work of Salesian missionaries in India >

SIERRA LEONE

In 2014, Don Bosco Fambul, a leading educational and vocational organization that serves disadvantaged youth in Freetown, Sierra Leone, in collaboration with Catholic Caritas and Sierra Leone Prisons Service, launched the Legal Support Project with the intention of helping the most disadvantaged inmates incarcerated at Pademba Road Prison in Freetown. The project provides legal representation for poor inmates who would otherwise be unable to access legal services to ensure their rights are upheld. As a result of this project, one young prisoner held for nearly six years without a conviction has been released. Many of the prisoners being assisted through the project do not have family outside the prison to ensure that the court and prison system acts in a fair and balanced way. Don Bosco Fambul hopes the project will free up to 100 inmates who have been held for more than three years without a conviction.

More stories about the work of Salesian missionaries in Sierra Leone >

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Sources:

UNICEF –Press Release

UNICEF report – For every child, a fair chance: The promise of equity

United Nations – Universal Children’s Day

The post UNIVERSAL CHILDREN’S DAY: Salesian Missions Highlights Children’s Rights Education and Child Welfare Programs first appeared on MissionNewswire.

The goal of CREAM is to encourage and enhance youth participation in the development process of promoting children’s rights and ensuring their care and protection. The project will include the formation of more than 450 child rights clubs and the training of 900 teachers and 22,500 children in Human Rights Education. It will also impart children’s rights awareness to about 75,000 children within a three-year period.

“Youth in every region and in every culture around the globe are entitled to basic human rights,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Through educational programming, the Salesians fight tirelessly each day to make sure the voices of marginalized youth are heard and accounted for. This program will help to enhance this work and make sure every child knows his or her human rights and is able to become a part of the development process.”

The CREAM project’s inaugural event began with an address by Sashikala Shetty, director of the Integrated Child Protection Scheme of the Government of Karnataka. She emphasized that every child by virtue of his or her birth has the right to survival, protection, development and participation, and noted that unless children are educated about their rights they will not be able to affirm those rights.

Following Mrs. Shetty’s address, Father Thomas Anchukandam, Salesian Provincial of Bangalore, spoke of the Salesians in India actively participating in the protection of children’s rights through the Young at Risk Forum and other Salesian programs and educational initiatives.

Father Joy Nedumparambil, executive director of the Bangalore Rural Educational and Development Society (BREADS), gave the keynote address and explained in detail the objectives of the project. CREAM is an initiative of BREADS and will cover 10 districts of Karnataka, namely, Bangalore, Ramnagara, Mysore, Bidar, Gulbarga, Yadgir, Chitradurga, Yadgir, Bellary, Raichur and Davangere. Other dignitaries were also on hand to celebrate the event.

The Salesians have been active for many years fighting for the rights of youth in India. For the past 22 years, the Salesians in Bangalore have focused on the rights of abandoned youth on city”s dangerous streets. With the help of many lay volunteers, the Salesian-run organization, Bangalore Oniyavra Seva Coota — locally known simply as “Bosco” — takes thousands of youth off the streets and offers them the chance of a better future.

The “Bosco” project began in 1980, when a group of Salesian students from Kristu Jyoti College in Bangalore decided to get personally involved with the abandoned children and youth in the city. They soon discovered the harsh reality experienced by the thousands of minors fighting for survival on the streets of Bangalore and started a weekly outreach project.

Today, Bosco has eight Salesian-run centers for youth, almost all in Bangalore, as well as six others in places of greatest risk. More than 100 Salesians and volunteers are involved in the centers and about 6,000 youth are rescued from the streets every year.

Learn more about Salesian Missions Programs in India >

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PHOTO: Neill Holland / Salesian Missions

Sources:

ANS – Bosco Project: giving life in all its fullness

Salesian of Don Bosco – Bangalore

Salesian Missions – India

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