Children: actors of their own rights

Children: actors of their own rights 22/11/2007

This article shows two initiatives promoted by Entreculturas seeking to impact on the idea that children's rights should consider children not as passive recipients of these rights but as active members and with a voice to be heard.

Entreculturas Youth Solidarity Networks, a school for citizenship

The Youth Solidarity Network is a proposal for boys and girls between 14 and 18 years old to channel their solidarity by carrying out activities in their schools with workshops regarding their rights and responsibilities in order to achieve a local and global fairer society.

In each of the schools members of the Network, a group is made up, accompanied by a teacher. This group carries out the solidarity activities which have previously elaborated, becoming a dynamizing agent of the education community life. The groups of the different centres are coordinated at regional level. At present we have Youth Networks in Andalucía, Asturias, Comunidad Valenciana, Castilla y León, Galicia, Madrid and Murcia. Periodically, Entreculturas organizes encounters at regional and country level.

Centre for Child Workers

The Centre for Child Workers (CMT) is an Ecuadorian Institute socially engaged with child workers and their families. The CMT was created to work with these children promoting their personal development, their labour skills and their integration in society, starting from the family.

With their participation in the Centre, the children learn labour skills while attending school. They also participate with their families in housing and basic services improvement, thus arousing community service spirit. The Centre tries to promote families as change agents who will contribute to a more just and solidarity society with equal participation and respect for fundamental rights.

Participation of families in the work and training at the Centre is compulsory for their children to be admitted. The success of the centre is partly due to the implication of the families. The CMT strives to promote family union, self financing and access to education and health services.

The centre also has production areas and small scale businesses: furniture, didactic games, sewing tools, bakery, restaurant, beauty parlour and mechanics and carpentry. The production and management units have a training purpose in addition to financing the social activities of the Centre.