Children's rights through artwork project-A rights based programming combining children's rights and artwork,India

GOODWILL SOCIAL WORK CENTRE,MADURAI,INDIA

Children's rights through artwork project-A rights based programming combining children's rights and artwork,India

Become a Partner and support our cause!

I.Introduction:

Goodwill Social Work Centre is an Indian Non-governmental organisation registered as a Society/Charity under the Tamilnadu Societies Registration Act 27 of 1975, Government of Tamilnadu {India} and Foreign Contribution (Regulations) Act 1976, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India in order to be eligible to receive donations from International funding organisations,Corporates and Individual donors. It is duly registered under section 12-A {b} of the Income Tax Act 1961. Our Society's Registration number is: 112/1981 and our FCRA number is : 075940124.You are invited to visit us at  http://www.goodwillsocialworkcentre.org.

The term ‘Goodwill social work’ is a philosophy, a practice mode and an approach, which is preventative, rehabilitative and developmental in perspective and based on the principles of scientific humanism in line with the professional social work model. It combines social philanthropy, professional social work and social development. ‘Goodwill social work’ is inclusive where children, youth, men and women participate in the social and economic life of their communities. It attempts to treat the symptoms through social protection, remove as far as possible the barriers to better social outcomes and tackle the root causes through social investment. It is committed to a particular set of professional values of social work including respect for worth and dignity of every person, the client's right to self-determination, confidentiality, advocacy and social action that promotes social justice, which are reflected in the word 'GOODWILL' as shown below:

G  stands for goodness in all we do for the community
O  stands for overflowing with love, compassion, and peace 
O  stands for outpouring care for others, especially
     children, youth and their families
D  stands for dutifulness in helping others to help themselves
W stands for willingness to serve the poor and downtrodden
I   stands for integrating professionalism in social work practice
L   stands for linking itself to serve locally and globally
L  stands for lighting up the face of the less fortunate and the
    unfortunate

Since its inception our organisation has been working in the areas of children's rights, children’s rights through artwork, Children’s environmental health rights, humanitarian aid, Intensive family preservation of dysfunctional families, Youth and women development, non-formal employment training for youth, community technology services, environment education and action, social research,, NGO capacity building and networking and NGO consultancy. GOODWILL is highly professional in its approach and its methods are underpinned by a strong academic research ethos. Highly impressed by the professionalism in GOODWILL’s governance and management of programmes,the Global Links Initiative(www.glinet.org) ,a registered company and a charity in the United Kingdom had entered into a partnership agreement with GOODWILL on 6th October 2007 to work together to provide services and capacity building programmes for GLI Networkers in Tamilnadu,India.

II. Our rights based programming for children at a glance:

1.Children's rights through artwork project-A rights based programming combining children's rights and artwork

As part of our Children's rights through artwork project supported by ART VENTURE,Singapore, Goodwill social work centre has formed 'Children's rights through artwork groups' of girls and boys who are in the 7-17 years of age with a view to building a holistic understanding the United Nations Convention on the rights of the child and various children's rights and the issues which affect children,combing arts with a study of the UN convention on the rights of children as a way to promote children’s understanding of their legal status in society and developing art skills, improve self confidence and enhance creative and enjoyment in the arts and to know of their rights to childhood.Through the formation of artwork groups a social awareness is created among the children and local communities as well concerning various rights based issues namely poverty,education,food and nutrition, health and shelter ,peace,discrimination,disability,child labour,armed conflicts, sexual exploitation, environment,violence against children,media,children in conflict with law.

Children are trained in various forms of arts namely water colouring,painting,pencil sketching, oil on canvas Painting,miniature painting, cartooning and computer graphics,pottery painting,portrait and figure drawing ,floor painting – rangoli and kollam,crayons and oil pastel work,modern painting,clay modeling,glass painting,Tanjore painting,pencil drawing, pot painting and embossed painting, folk arts and dances,which are used to portray and convey messages relating to children's rights to survival,protection,development and participation that are enshrined in the UN Convention of the rights of the child. Children learn of the various issues and concerns which affect them through their active participation in the artwork.The most celebrated forms of folk arts used in the training include Kuravan- kurathi Aattam(Gypsy dance), Bharathanatyam(classical dance), Karagaattam(with a brass vessel on head), Peacock dance,Dummy Horse Dance dance,Dummy Bull dance, kavadiattam,kollattam(using two batons), Puppetry, Oyilaattam (Ribbon dance), folk songs etc. In point of fact, the art painting and folk art media serve as power tools to promote and propagate the rights of children among the children and local communities. Children in these artwork groups not only get themselves empowered but also sensitise other children to their rights and needs and also adults as to their responsibility in protecting and promoting the ethos of 'Children First' through their artwork.

The artwork of our children's groups may viewed at our web albums and video links:

http://picasaweb.google.com/chrisdangswc/ChildrenSRightsThroughArtworkGroupGSWCMaduraiIndia?feat=directlink

http://s633.photobucket.com/albums/uu51/CHRISDANIEL_photos/

http://picasaweb.google.com/chrisdangswc/GOODWILLSChildrenWinAtThe2ndWorldWaterDayInternationalPosterContest2009NVOCUSA#

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPW8HTkKEMA

The Children's rights through artwork is a unique project which is aimed empowering children in the age group of 7-17 with information on their rights,developing skills in them in arts and learning to combine arts with the study on their rights and inspiring them to discover their unique talents through a variety of hands-on workshops in arts and crafts and folk arts. These children put their creative energy into their artistic expression. They show a high level of creativity in their artwork and a inner-connective knowledge and awareness of child rights issues and concern which affect them and children worldwide. 

2.GOODWILL'S children give water a voice to promote the right to water in International poster contests organised  by NV-OC,USA,2008- 2009

Through our Children's Rights Centre our organisation is able to take up children's rights through artwork supported by ART VENTURE,Singapore and a Rain centre for local children and communities supported by Nature's voice-Our choice,USA. A phenomenal achievement is that five students from our children's rights through artwork programme were selected as winners at the international poster contest 2008 on theme 'What Water Means in my Life' organised by the Nature's Voice-Our Choice,USA. The following web album links may be viewed to see our five International poster contest winners and our winners at the preliminary poster contests held in Madurai,Tamilnadu,India

http://picasaweb.google.com/chrisdangswc/ChildrenSRightsThroughArtworkProjectPosterContest8thMarch2008#

http://picasaweb.google.com/chrisdangswc/GOODWILLSChildrenWinAt2008WorldWaterDayInternationalPosterContestOrganisedByNVOCUSA#

Three of our children from Madurai,India (out of six non US international students) under our 'Children's rights through artwork project' supported  by ART VENTURE,Singapore have been declared as  International poster contest winners at the Second annual International Poster Contest 2009 sponsored by Nature's Voice-Our Choice,USA.

As part of our art training programme for children we conducted a series of poster contests on the themes 'Water and Culture" and 'right to environment' for school children from February,15, 2009 to March 10, 2009 in and around Madurai,Tamilnadu,India.Of 2440 posters made by children, 966 posters were selected for submission to the Nature's Voice-Our choice,USA for the 2009 World water Day International Poster contest.It is a proud moment for GOODWILL to make known that three children under the Children's rights through artwork project have been selected as international poster contest winners.

Of 3000 children from 8 different countries and throughout the United States participated in the Second annual International Poster Contest 2009 sponsored by Nature's Voice-Our Choice ,USA. Of 12 children were selected as International poster contest winners 3 children are from Goodwill Social work Centre,Madurai,India. Our Three winners and their winning posters can be viewed at our web album link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/chrisdangswc/GOODWILLSChildrenWinAtThe2ndWorldWaterDayInternationalPosterContest2009NVOCUSA#

Invitation to  check out  URL http://www.naturesvoice-ourchoice.org/students-give-water-a-voice.html from the website of Nature's Voice-Our Choice,USA

It is a proud moment for us to share this URL: http://www.naturesvoice-ourchoice.org/students-give-water-a-voice.html, from the website of Nature's Voice-Our Choice,USA, which contains information on our children under our 'Children's rights through artwork project' giving water a voice at the world water day International poster contests 2008 and 2009 organised by the Nature's Voice-Our Choice,USA. Five children from our project were selected as International poster contest winners at the 2008 poster contest and three children at the 2009 International poster contest. You may please check out the video in the URL to see our children at artwork. Please click on “Students awards and recognition” to view our web album about the award distribution function organised by Goodwill Social Work Centre,Madurai,India.


The Children's rights through artwork is a unique project which is aimed empowering children in the age group of 7-17 with information on their rights,developing skills in them in arts and learning to combine arts with the study on their rights and inspiring them to discover their unique talents through a variety of hands-on workshops in arts and crafts and folk arts. These children put their creative energy into their artistic expression. They show a high level of creativity in their artwork and a inner-connective knowledge and awareness of child rights issues and concern which affect them and children worldwide.

Goodwill social Work Centre believes that the art painting,murals,art models they make and the learning of children rights through folk arts and communication applications(traditional and modern) will make an impact on children and inspire them to become more proactive in the protection and promotion of children's rights,which is an adult obligation .

Become a partner of Goodwill Social Work


Centre and support our cause!

We strongly realise the need for replicating this rights based programming to cover more children and local communities in India in promoting the rights of children through artwork.We invite partnership initiative from potential donors and funding organisations who might be interested in supporting this innovative project for children in India.

Prof.Dr.J.Christopher Daniel,M.A.,Ph.D

Executive Director



Goodwill social work centre

No:5,South street Extension

Singarayar colony

Madurai,India

Email:chriskan@satyam.net.in
Website:http://www.goodwillsocialworkcentre.org

Promoting Children's Environmental Health Rights among children and young people in India

GOODWILL SOCIAL WORK CENTRE,MADURAI,INDIA

AN APPEAL FOR PROJECT PARTNERSHIP

Promoting Children's Environmental Health Rights among children and young people in India

I.Introduction:

Protection of environment has posed not only a major challenge but also a social and moral responsibility in the present society. In recent times, the subject of environment has interested the general public and caught the attention and enthusiasm of children in particular. The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (1992) adopted by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development affirms that children are an indispensable component in achieving sustainable development. In addition, one chapter in Agenda 21 is solely devoted to children and youth in sustainable development and portrays the special role that they can play in this process, while other chapters recognize the conditions of extreme poverty in which children live and the perpetual state of hunger the many suffer as a consequence of environment degradation.

Environmental threats to child health can broadly be divided into “traditional” hazards, stemming largely from a lack of development, and “modern” hazards, arising essentially from unsustainable patterns of development. The quality of the environment and the care a child receives from parents and family members exerts a powerful influence on his or her physical and mental development processes.

Obviously enough, there is an increasing evidence in support of the crucial role that children can and must play in environmental protection through their participation and also developing of appropriate mechanisms that protect the children’s rights to a decent environment. The term environment refers to circumstances surrounding children, especially the combinations of external physical conditions, which affect and influence the growth, development and survival of children and the complex of social conditions affecting the nature of children and the community in which they live.

The UN Convention on the rights of child (1989) proclaims the following child rights relating to environment to be protected and promoted by the State parties.
Article: 6-Right to life, Article: 12-Right to express views, Article: 13-Freedom of expression, including freedom to seek, receive and impart information, Article: 15-Freedom of association, perhaps in relation to formation of environmental groups, Article: 16- Privacy, Article: 17-Access to information including national and international sources, especially material aimed at promotion of the child’s physical and mental health, Article: 24- Right of the child to the enjoyment of highest attainable standard of health, Article: 27-Right of every child to a standard of living adequate for the child’s development, Article: 28 & 29 -Education, Article: 31-Right of the child to rest and leisure and to engage in play and recreational activities.

From the environmental perspective, the UN Convention on the rights of the child emphasizes four important principles namely 1.All children, irrespective of age, gender, ethnic and social background, disabilities, and irrespective of where they live, have the right to a healthy and supportive physical environment (Article: 2) 2.All actions and decisions concerning the physical environment shall be made and assessed with the best interests of the child and generations to come (Article: 3), 3.All children have the right to adequate environmental conditions for good health and social, intellectual and emotional development(Article.6),which focuses on the fact that a general understanding of environmental preconditions are necessary for realizing children’s rights and knowledge about and respect for the natural environment is an integral part of the development of every child and 4.All children have the right to express their views on all issues that affect them, which implies that children’s views on their dwelling, their school and their near environment shall be respected.(Article:12)

In principle 19 of the Stockholm Declaration of the Human Environment (1973), it was emphasized `Education in environmental matters, for the younger generation as well as adults, giving due consideration to the underprivileged, is essential in order to broaden the basis for an enlightened opinion and responsible conduct by individuals; enterprises and communities in this full human dimension’. Further, it recognized that the world’s youth have vital role to play in environment protection more than twenty years ago and expressed the same in Principle 19. It emphasizes that child, who will inherit the earth, must receive it, and in turn pass it on, in a state no worse than received.

To achieve this, Children’s environmental health rights education and training is highlighted as vital in this process.By sensitizing the young minds to environmental problems-natural and man made, education and communication can assist, in keeping the demands within environmentally sustained limits and thus improve the quality of life for all. Children’s environmental health rights education is a continuous learning process based on respect for all life. It affirms values and actions, which ultimately promote the transformation and construction of society. It fosters ecologically sound and equitable societies that live together in interdependence and diversity. It requires individual and collective responsibility at the local, national and planetary level. It attempts to bring about change in the quality of life and a greater consciousness of personal conduct, as well as harmony among the human being and between them and other forms of life. Most importantly, it greens the young minds in a globalizing world to think and act locally and globally in a fast changing world.

II.Child health rights and issues in India:

It is reported in India Together,India,Sunday,02,November 2008(www.indiatogether.org) ‘The health of our children in India continues to be a matter of grave concern, especially in the wake of growing privatisation of health services, and their increasing inaccessibility for the poor. This is a particularly serious situation as environmental degradation and pollution lead to a further deterioration in children's health. The working conditions that many children are forced to suffer worsens matters. Children in India suffer from malnutrition or die of starvation and preventable diseases. According to UNAIDS there are 170,000 children infected by HIV/AIDS in India. Children affected by the virus-whether children of victims or those who are infected themselves-- live on the fringes of society, ostracised by people they call their own, unloved and uncared for, even as our government continues to squabble over numbers of affected people. Even juvenile diabetes is reported to be taking on pandemic proportions’.

Children like any other children of the world who live in villages and backward areas in and around Madurai, Tamilnadu, India need a decent, secure, affordable home which is fundamental to the realization of children’s rights. The quality of housing affects girls’ and boys’ health and overall environment. Their health and survival depends as much on healthy environments as on health services. In fact, these children are particularly affected by health related problems which are related to water and sanitation and they are susceptible to diarrhoeal diseases, intestinal worms and various eye and skin ailments. Inadequate living environments namely environmental chaos, stress and parenting, poor housing, absence of safe informal public gathering places, lack of easy access to opportunities for safe play, absence of constructive opportunities for young people, repeated exposure to violence in hazardous in rural and semi- urban environment etc impact the quality of life of children.

It is found that children who live in rural and backward areas have heightened vulnerability to a variety of exposures as a consequence of their developmental, behavioural and physiological characteristics. They receive greater exposures per unit of body weight than adults because – for their size – they eat more food, drink more liquids, and breathe more air than adults. Depending on their age, children's ability to metabolize, detoxify and excrete many toxicants is different from that of adults. Exposures at critical periods of development can result in irreversible damage to the growing nervous system, affect emerging behaviour patterns, cause immune dysfunction and have serious reproductive effects.Children's behaviour often places them at higher risk than adults to certain environmental hazards, because of their exploratory behaviour, frequent hand-to-mouth activity, and proximity to the ground - all of which result in greater contact with sources of contamination.

The Goodwill social work centre has been taking up various programmes aimed the physical, social, educational and spiritual development of children and young people who are in the 7-18 years of age. Our experiences have shown that though these activities and services which are being offered to boys and girls who hail from villages and urban slums areas have impacted the quality of their life to an appreciable extent and the extent of their participation in the programmes is found to be fairly high, the need for promoting the education of these children about the importance of physical environment and sensitizing them to the environmental health rights and their participation in decisions that affect their lives is of paramount importance.

Knowing the importance of information dissemination in promoting the environmental health rights among children and providing opportunity for them to effectively participate in practice - based learning experiences, the Goodwill social work centre proposes to launch a CHILDREN’S ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH RIGHTS’ centre to cater to the needs of children and young people in and around Madurai, Tamilnadu, South India and backward areas in and around Madurai, Tamilnadu, South India. The proposed Centre will provide education and training on children’s rights and environment, research on issues concerning environmental health rights, takes up advocacy, undertakes capacity building, work in partnership with local and international organizations, work with media and press and act a resources centre for children, youth, teachers and parents”. It aims to build harmonious relationship between the environment and children and young people. Our work will Centre on promoting greater access to justice and guarantee human rights for children who are victims of environmental degradation.

The proposed project will be set up in line with the following guiding principles:

1.All children have the right to clean air, safe food and drinking water, and consumer and commercial products free of environmental health and safety threats;
2.All children have the right to healthy homes, healthy child care facilities, healthy schools and healthy communities;
3.All children and adults have the right to know about proven and potential hazards to their environmental health and safety.

Our centre will organise all programmes with a view to protecting the above rights and to acting with precaution on decisions that could affect children's health.

III.Our experiences in promoting environmental health rights among children:

The Goodwill social work centre has had wide previous  professional and practiced based  experience in undertaking rights based environment education and communication projects for rural children and youth in ten villages in the Narikudi village panchayat block, Kamarajar district, Tamilnadu, South India under the aegis of the International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada.(1994-1995),which was replicated in Therkutheru Villages, Madurai East Village panchayat union block, Madurai district, Tamilnadu, South India, funded by US based DuPont South Asia Limited, Madurai under Safety Health and Environment (SHE) award(1996-1998). 

The following strategies included.

1. Setting up Children’s Environmental Rights Centre.

 2. Designing a curriculum on Environmental Education. 

3. Focus on environmental rights education & Training.

 4 Training for village male and female Animators.

 5. Enrolment of children (Girls and Boys) 

6. Pre-assessment survey. 

7. Time frame for Environmental rights sessions and media interventions. 

8. Program implementation 

9 Post evaluation. 

The environmental health rights program components comprised 1.rights based education and training 2. Participatory training 3. Field study and exposure visits 4.Media interventions (Traditional and modern methods of communication applications). The above projects have indicated the following recommendations.

1. Being an innovative intervention action program for the children in villages, the responses and the level of participation of all children in the program were more encouraging and invigorating at every stage. In addition to the surveyed respondents, more children showed enthusiasm to participate in the program. Obviously enough, there is a imperative need for organizing similar programmes for children in the rural areas in villages in India and other developing countries, which will certainly benefit them for the present and the future 2. Longitudinal studies on media interventions in environmental rights education program for children are highly recommended for greater impact on them. Such programmes undertaken for children on a fairly longer period will certainly prove to be productively useful and meaningful to them. 3. It is highly recommended that this action research may be replicated and implemented in every village in the rural areas. There is a need to focus on future research in this direction. Further, specially designed environmental rights education may be organized for urban children particularly in slums and backward areas. 4. Studies on environmental health for rural children and children’s rights and sustainable development, combining research as a major intervention in these programmes could be attempted. 5. In line with the methods design adopted in the present research, studies on girls and young women’s participation in environmental rights and communication in villages in suggested. 6. Communication application in promoting environmental rights among children should be promoted and a variety of media could be used in making the program truly effective and enriching for the children. 7. It is essential that school teachers, informal youth leaders and volunteers in villages should be sensitized to the environmental rights of children and trained on communication applications for promoting environment related rights among the school and non-school children. 8.Most importantly, greening the young minds of children through promoting digital opportunities to have access to on line communication and information on environmental issues and threats affecting their lives and their environmental rights and needs in villages in India is an urgent need for the present and future generation.

GOODWILL's children  give water Voice at the International art contests 2008 and 2009 organised by  Nature's Voice-Our Choice,USA

It is a delight  to see our GOODWILL's winning children from Madurai,India at the International art  contests,2008 and 2009 organised by the Nature's voice-Our Choice,USA   posted in its  Youtube video titled “Students Give Water a Voice” at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oE-j6kLE_9k . Eight of our children have won the international poster contests in their efforts to promote the right to water at the  global level. As a result, we plan to create a RAIN CENTRE in Madurai, which will organise  capacity building programmes on the right to water and the right to environment,advocacy, resource sharing  and networking among children and local  communities.                                         

IV.Need for  promoting Children's environmental health rights :

*In general, children in rural and semi urban India lack the basic information on the environment and environment related children's rights.
* Children lack the opportunities to learn and explore their environment physically and intellectually
* Children are easy to reach and indispensable component in achieving sustainable development
* Accessing children to environment health rights will protect them from dangers and risks
* It is a social facility enjoyed by the children in villages and backward areas
* Environmental health rights based education and networking will attract children's attention and co-operation

V.Objectives of the project:

1. Inculcating knowledge in children in rural and backward areas the ecological traditions of the local community and to develop a sense of ecological wisdom among them in villages as to the means of conserving natural resources.
2. Creating participatory training for children to learn about the principles of children’s rights in the environment, explore their environmental rights and identify their environmental needs and issues.
3. Providing education to children about the importance of physical environment and sensitize them to the environmental health rights.
4. Promoting children’s access to environmental media to arouse natural curiosity and develop a thirst for new knowledge in the area of environment.
5. Exchanging information and fostering constructive dialogue on environmental child rights with local and international NGOs involved in the promotion and protection of children’s rights
6. Preparing children to share environment information with others on a child-to-child and child-to-community.

VI.Expected outcomes:

Children will be sensitized to environmental issues and provided with an opportunity to participate in media intervention campaigns, participatory training and field exposure programmes. They will empowered with information of the environment and will be ‘environmentally concerned’ about the health rights and the need to protect and promote their rights. They will be empowered to identify potential environmental risks and solutions. They will have greater opportunities to have access to Internet based ecology and environment information. Pre-assessment and post assessment surveys to measure the level of knowledge and attitudes among the children will assess the success of the project. Qualitative assessment of the participation of children in various participatory training programmes and activities will also serve an indicator for defining success of the project. Assistance to children and their parents who are victims of environmental degradation. Parents, teachers and local community based civil society organizations in the project areas will be empowered through Education, training and awareness building in human rights for children and environmental health rights.

VII. Become a partner and support our cause!

I invite you to become a partner of this rights based programming for children and youth in promoting environmental health rights among children and youth in India.

Prof.Dr.J.Christopher Daniel,Ph.D
Executive Director
Goodwill social work centre
No:5,South street Extension
Singarayar colony
Madurai,India
Email:chriskan@satyam.net.in

Website:www.goodwillsocialworkcentre.org

Children's Rights Centre-Become a partner

GOODWILL SOCIAL WORK CENTRE, MADURAI,INDIA

‘...in serving the best interests of children, we serve the best interests of all humanity.’-- Carol Bellamy

Introducing Our Centre:

Goodwill Social Work Centre is an Indian Non-governmental organisation registered as a Society under the Tamilnadu Societies Registration Act 27 of 1975, Government of Tamilnadu {India}, Foreign Contributions (Regulations) Act 1976, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. It is duly registered under section 12-A {b} of the Income Tax Act 1961. Our Society's Registration number is: 112/1981 and our FCRA number is:: 075940124.

You are invited to visit us at www.goodwillsocialworkcentre.org and our web album link: http://picasaweb.google.com/chrisdangswc  to view photographs of our various social projects being taken up in  and around Madurai,Tamilnadu,India.

The term ‘Goodwill social work’ is a philosophy, a practice mode and an approach, which is preventative, rehabilitative and developmental in perspective and based on the principles of scientific humanism in line with the professional social work model. It combines social philanthropy, professional social work and social development. ‘Goodwill social work’ is inclusive where children, youth, men and women participate in the social and economic life of their communities. It attempts to treat the symptoms through social protection, remove as far as possible the barriers to better social outcomes and tackle the root causes through social investment. It is committed to a particular set of professional values of social work including respect for worth and dignity of every person, the client's right to self-determination, confidentiality, advocacy and social action that promotes social justice, which are reflected in the word 'GOODWILL' as shown below:

G   stands for goodness in all we do for the community
O   stands for overflowing with love, compassion, and peace
O   stands for outpouring care for others, especially
    children, youth and their families
D   stands for dutifulness in helping others to help themselves
W  stands for willingness to serve the poor and downtrodden
I   stands for integrating professionalism in social work practice
L   stands for linking itself to serve locally and globally
L   stands for lighting up the face of the less fortunate and the unfortunate

Since its inception  our organisation has been working in the areas of children's rights, children’s rights through artwork, Children’s environmental health rights, humanitarian aid, Intensive family preservation of dysfunctional families, Youth and women development, non-formal employment training for youth, community technology services, environment education and action, social research,, NGO capacity building and networking and NGO consultancy. GOODWILL is highly professional in its approach and its methods are underpinned by a strong academic research ethos. Highly impressed by the professionalism in GOODWILL’s governance and management of programmes,the Global Links Initiative (www.glinet.org) ,a registered company and a charity in the United Kingdom had entered into a partnership agreement with GOODWILL on 6th October 2007 to work together to provide services and capacity building programmes for GLI Networkers in Tamilnadu,India.

As part of the development initiative, the Goodwill Social Work Centre has set up a Children's Rights Centre {CRC} in Madurai city, South India, coinciding with the Children’s Day in India (14th November 1998) with a prime objective of proclaiming, protecting and defending Children's rights as affirmed in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Child (1989).

Like many other countries, the rights of children are still generally low on the agendas in India. In point of fact, awareness about the rights of the child among children and adults is very limited in India. It is evident from a study Report (Maheshwar Madan All, 1994) that the percentage of children in India who asserted their rights was negligible and a high majority of children were not even aware of their fundamental rights of children due to lack of education. Similarly, amongst adults, 10 percent were aware of the rights of child while 15 percent gave this subject a thought. Only 7 percent were engaged in facilitating these rights to them.

Though the Government of India had ratified the CRC document in 1992 to serve the country's children as the `first call' of the nation, evaluations by various agencies like the UNICEF, Amnesty International, International Commission on Human Rights among others, show that violations of human rights of children are on the rise. While children as individuals enjoy the rights under the UN Convention on the rights of the child, 1989,the conditions of children in India present a grim picture. There are incidents of violations of right to life of a large number of children. Children are also made the subjects of religious discrimination. While adults of different religions wage riots, children are often caught in the crossfire, raped, tortured and murdered because of their religion. The children are still being denied appropriate information in schools. An estimated 60 million children are still out of schools,of which 35 million were girls. The Government fails to acknowledge discrimination as one of the main obstacles to access to education of the Dalit and indigenous children. Children of lower castes are exposed to discrimination at an early stage. Children in armed conflict 14 out of 28 states face serious problems including risks to the security of their lives. There are over 500,000 conflict-induced internally displaced and a large number of them are children. The problem of child labour continues to pose a grave threat to the rights to childhood. And yet, many children,parents,teachers and civic society groups in rural and urban areas are not aware of the rights of the child.

The realisation of children’s rights to be promoted and protected and sensitisation of children in particular and civic action groups in general to the problems of child abuse is still generally low on the agendas in developing India.

The need to respect the rights of child and to promote a public ethos of ‘Children First’ should be an obligation of civic action groups and civic action group cannot shun this social and ethical responsibility. People from all walks of life in India should be made aware of ‘Children’s best interests’. Knowing the urgent need for initiating an action plan for creating awareness and dissemination on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Goodwill social work centre has set up a children’s Rights Centre as a unit with a view a building capacity of Children’s rights’ among various civic action groups, namely farmers’ associations, Co-operatives, women’s groups, self help groups (men and women), rural youth clubs/Associations, Residents’ welfare associations, grassroots level NGOs, political groups and NSS volunteers and Youth groups in schools) in rural and urban areas in India. 

The strategic interventions include: 

1.Children’s Rights Education.

2.Children’s Rights Training

3.Children’s Rights Research 

4.Children’s Rights Communications

5.Children’s Rights Information Network and 

6.Provision of family support services to children at imminent risk, keeping in view the following objectives:

· To provide a conceptual understanding and awareness of the United Nations Convention on the Rights the Child (I989) for civic action groups.

· To arouse social consciousness among civic action groups on their role-responsibilities in child protection initiatives in the prevention of child abuse and neglect.

· To design and develop CRC communication materials in local language and to apply media interventions in education and awareness building programmes.

· To undertake research on child rights issues and concerning the UN Convention on Children’s Rights and develop models for effective implementation on the basis of insights gained by means of research.

· To network with agencies in child rights promotion and protection at the local, national and international levels.

The activities of the CRC include

1. Children’s Rights Education and awareness training for civic action groups namely School children’s forums, Teachers’ and parents’ associations, farmers’ associations, Co-operatives, women’s groups, self help groups (men and women), rural youth clubs/Associations, Residents’ welfare associations, grassroots level NGOs, political groups and NSS volunteers and Youth groups in schools

2. Children’s rights communications- Designing and developing CRC communication materials and media interventions in education and awareness building programmes.

3. Public awareness campaigns (Marches, Street meetings, street plays, human rights chains, rallies, CRC commemoration Day etc.,

4.Research on child rights issues and concerning the UN Convention on Children’s Rights.

5. Information exchange through electronic and non-electronic networking

6. Provision of family support services to endangered children viz., Children on the streets, Child workers, Children who are risk of child abuse, children at risk via the media and children at risk of smoking and drug addiction.

In attempting to promote the UN convention of the rights of the child through the above strategic interventions, the Children's Rights Centre aims at protecting the following endangered children through direct practice actions, namely 1.Children on the streets 2. Children who are at risk of child abuse and sexual exploitation 3. Children at risk via media 4. Children at risk of smoking and drug addiction and 5.Children who are affected by HIV/AIDS and 6.Children with disabilities.

Become a Partner of GOODWILL:

The Goodwill Social work Centre invites you to be a Partner of the Children’s Rights Centre and seeks your valuable professional assistance and fund support. Your partnership goes a long way in promoting the human rights and needs of children in India.

Contact address:
Prof. Dr. J. Christopher Daniel,M.A.,Ph.D
Executive Director Goodwill Social Work Centre
No: 5, South Street, Extension Singarayar Colony
 Madurai-625 002. INDIA
Email: chrisdangswc@gmail.com
Website: http://www.goodwillsocialworkcentre.org.