Save the Children Sweden Denmark has the mandate to ensure children participation which is one of the principles of Child Rights Convention. To uphold the participation of children, Save the Children Sweden Denmark works with children organisations. The children organisations i.e. child led organisations or child led initiatives create a common platform where children can raise their voice and thus enable themselves to claim their own rights. Therefore, the thematic group of Children Organisation and Media & Communication (COMC) assists children in this endeavour. However, the ultimate goal is not only to create a platform for children and raise children’s voice, but also to enable children to become a stakeholder and take necessary action for them.
To pave the way towards this goal, COMC team provides direct support with some children organisations like Child Brigade, Vorer Alo and Ichchey Media Group. It assists the existing children organisation of all of Save the Children Sweden Denmark’s partner organisations. Moreover, it has established new children organisations through partners under the project “Child led Organisations and Advocacy on Child Labour.” The project focuses on the participation of child labourers through seven partner organisations including Solidarity, INCIDIN Bangladesh, Nari Maitree, BITA, CPD, SEEP and Uddipan both in rural and urban areas. The project also aims to create a methodology on child participation by the end of it.
Media is one of the important factors to establish child rights in the society. The COMC team follows the motto “Media for Children and Media by Children.” It works to make the media in the country more accountable towards child rights. It assists the media personnel to enhance their capacity regarding child rights through different initiatives so they can contribute more in creating a common voice raising platform for children.
On the other hand, it works to ensure children participation in main stream media through capacity building to participate in media enabling the children raise their voice and claim their rights to become a social actor.
Save the Children Sweden Denmark is providing direct support to the three child led organisations. These organisations are running by the children directly and providing different support on protection, health, education and media activities for other children and also for themselves. These children organisations are implementing these activities through child led advocacy, theatre for development and media. Children are also developing a children’s savings based on the concept of “Children Bank”. The names of the organisations are:
1. Child Brigade
2. Ichchey Media Group
3. Bhorer Alo
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