Project: TOWARDS A CULTURE OF CHILDREN’S RIGHTS IN CHILE
Partner: Caleta, Santiago Chile and other departments
Funding Partner: Wild Rose Foundation
Beneficiares: 300-400 youth and children benefit directly and thousands of community members benefit indirectly.
Like nearly every country in the world, Chile has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). However, like a great many countries in the world, few steps have been made to ensure that the rights enshrined in this document – participation, education, health to name but a few – are meaningful realities for all of Chile’s children and youth. CFCA’s Chilean partner, La Caleta, believes that for the CRC to truly make a difference in children’s lives, it needs at least two things behind it: political will and the support of children and youth. Change for Children’s current project in Chile works to build these two things.
By providing children and youth with information and education about their human rights and then by engaging them in the critical process of raising awareness and generating political will, the project is about children finding ways to change their own lives. A ‘magic bus’ will travel around Chile, bringing resources about human rights – from books, to art exhibits, to inspiring performers – to children and youth in impoverished rural communities and marginalized urban slums. These children and youth will then create a media campaign, using television, radio and visual media, to spread the word about children’s rights and about government’s responsibility to promote and protect them. The project will also coordinate key meetings between youth leaders, children’s advocates and the children and youth who emerge as protagonists of this project and officials in Chile’s government.
The project will directly benefit between 300 and 400 children and young people around Chile; thousands more will see, hear and be inspired by the media campaign. This project is a key step in building momentum towards a culture of respect for children’s rights in Chile.