GOODWILL SOCIAL WORK CENTRE, MADURAI,INDIA
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.
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