State of Children's Rights in England Report launched on Universal Children's Day

Today is Universal Children's Day. The annual State of Children's Rights in England Report is also being launched today, by the Children's Rights Alliance for England (CRAE). The Report is a review of the Government's progress in implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in England. Shockingly, CRAE found that:

"Of the 118 areas identified as needing Government action, 88 of those areas have made no progress or have gotten worse in the last 12 months."

CRAE has also been tweeting some facts, taken from the findings of the Report. These include:

"Babies with fathers who are shelf stackers almost twice as likely to die as those born to professionals. http://bit.ly/1b3dFxW  #SOCR13"

"65% of child deaths that were caused by ‘deliberately inflicted injury, abuse or neglect’ were avoidable http://bit.ly/1b3dFxW  #SOCR13"

More information, along with a link to download the Report can be found here. Key findings are given here.

I am attending the launch, as I was involved in doing research, and drafted some sections of the Report. If you want to follow the discussion surrounding the children's issues raised by the Report, the twitter hashtag is #SOCR13 and CRAE's twitter handle is: CRAE_official The launch begins at 16.45 GMT.

I am looking forward to the launch this afternoon, and to hearing the speeches about the state of children's rights in England. The findings that CRAE has tweeted so far, show that much must be done to protect children's rights in England.

What matters at Christmas

I am thinking of Christmas today... and not just because there are already Christmas displays in some of the shop windows here in London! Today, I came across a great blogger, who is also doing the NaBloPoMo challenge (to write a blog post each day during November), called  Glorius Mettle. It made me reflect and want to write a post on Christmas too (although, yes, I do realise it is still quite a few weeks away!)

As well as this, I create an update for a child rights advocacy organisation each week, so they can pick up on all the latest news. Yesterday, I saw that according to the charity, Shelter, 80,000 children will be facing homelessness in the UK, this Christmas. I am so shocked by this figure.  Shelter’s chief executive, Campbell Robb said that such things should not be happening in twenty-first century Britain and that:

"No child should be homeless, let alone 80,000. But tragically, with more people struggling to make ends meet and homelessness on the rise, we’re bracing ourselves for an increase in demand from families who desperately need our help."

I have spent Christmas in some very different places, and each time I had the opportunity to be working with people who truly cared about children, and gave them the help they desperately needed. Without those inspirational people, those children would not have had a very happy Christmas. Staff running children's homes in Ghana and Romania made sure the children had a great day, with food, music, a party, and of course, a Christmas tree! An organisation in South Africa made sure the children who came to its creche each had a gift to take home for Christmas.

Last Christmas, I was in London, and I volunteered for Crisis, a charity for single homeless people, and helped at one of its shelters. Whilst homelessness is a huge issue all year round, there is something extra poignant about Christmas. It is not an issue of material items and presents. It is the fact Christmas is often a time that people spend together, and that is why it felt so important to be able to create a space where people could do just that, at one of Crisis's shelters. The guests could eat a Christmas meal and do various activities, like art, watching films, and playing games. Crisis also looks to the future - there were services at the shelter, from hairdressing, to help with putting CVs together, and getting free legal advice. People have been able to turn their lives around using these services. (Some of my fellow volunteers were once guests at a Crisis at Christmas shelter.)

I have seen that some people seem to truly believe in the 'spirit of Christmas' and want to help others in need, and I am so lucky to know people like that. It has also been such a positive experience to volunteer over Christmas, and I would definitely recommend it. For anyone who might want to make a donation instead, Crisis and Shelter both do great work!


Some of my Christmas photos!

Romania:

Christmas party and a visit from Santa arranged for the children at the home, Casa Mea

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Helping to take some of the younger children at Casa Mea to see the big Christmas tree in the nearest city!

Ghana:

With the tree, and then dancing on Christmas Day, at New Life

South Africa:

Christmas play, by children at Seawind Educare

All of these organisations are supported by my charity, CHW.

Ditch the Label and Stop the Bullying!

I came across a great anti-bullying charity recently, called Ditch the Label. I was doing some research for the Children's Rights Alliance for England, and needed some stats on bullying. Ditch the Label published their first Annual Bullying Survey earlier this year. It was really sad to see what children and young people have been experiencing.

Here are some of their findings:

• Up to 68% of young people in the UK will experience bullying.
• Young people with disabilities or from sexual minorities were found to be the most at risk of bullying.
• 60.2% of the young people who were bullied were targeted because of attitudes towards appearance.
• 57% of bullied students were dissatisfied with support services on offer.

When I read that last statistic, my first thought was that we have to do something to improve support services for these young people who have experienced bullying. Whereas, actually, it would be better to take action to try to stop bullying in the first place, and then there would be no need for such support services.

Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A report released last week, by The Children's Commission on Poverty, showed that poorer children in the UK were more likely to report bullying. Children from poorer families were asked if they ever felt embarrassed or were bullied because their families did not have enough money. 55% said they felt embarrassed and 14% said they had been bullied.

Another form of bullying has been on the rise in recent years. Yesterday, I blogged about the fact that so many children around the world do not have access to the internet. Sadly, those who can easily access the internet may use it for destructive purposes, including cyberbullying. Bullying can now extend from the school playground, right into a child's home, through the internet.  

Ditch the Label has also published an Annual Cyberbullying Survey. This survey showed that:

• 7 in 10 young people are the victims of cyberbullying.
• 20% of young people are experiencing cyberbullying on a daily basis.
• Young people are twice as likely to be bullied on facebook than on any other social networking site.

This page has some guidance on how to deal with cyberbullying - for children, parents and teachers.

Image courtesy of imagerymajestic at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I think the name, Ditch the Label, is a great one for an anti-bullying charity. Often people label others, based on their appearance, or their interests, or their background, etc. They then form perceptions, because of these labels. In the worst case scenario, this can lead to abuse and bullying. It is important to try to help those who bully others, as with the right support, they can stop inflicting this pain on others.

A nice thing I have found about NaBloPoMo (the challenge to write a blog post everyday throughout November) is the discovery of other great bloggers who are also doing this challenge. I would like to share with you to a post I found yesterday on Mifusa's Blog: Presents of Presence. The post is here. First it highlights the most terrible consequence of bullying: suicide. Then it gives a truly inspiring video, of a man called Nick Vujicic, who was born without limbs, speaking very powerfully about bullying and about love. I wish more young people could watch this video, and hear Nick's message. Please share that post as much as possible to get the message out there!

Feel free to share any other useful sites or videos in the comment section below, or any advice or thoughts you may have. Bullying is a huge issue, and causes so much pain to so many people. I think that any time we can put in to the anti-bullying effort is surely time well-spent.

Chance to change the law to support Care-Leavers

Today, there is a chance that a change to the law on children leaving care could be discussed and accepted in Parliament. Currently, children in foster care must leave on or before their eighteenth birthday. Support for care-leavers depends on the local authority, and varies greatly from one area to another. 

The Children and Families Bill has been making its way through Parliament, and has reached its Report Stage today. It will be discussed later this morning. MP Paul Goggins has tabled an amendment which would allow young people in foster care to stay with their foster carers until their twenty-first birthday (as long as both parties agree). This amendment could be considered today, if the Speaker selects if for debate. A number of MPs have signed up in support of the amendment. You can see more about this on the website of the Don't Move Me Campaign.

The Who Cares? Trust has produced a briefing for the Report Stage of the Children and Families Bill. It highlights the fact that those leaving care are some of the most vulnerable people in society and states that:

"Many children who have been in the care system have had a childhood full of instability and trauma, with over 62 per cent of looked after children being taken into care due to abuse or neglect."

Yet despite this reality, young people in care are expected to be able to fend for themselves at an early age. The Fostering Network states that the average age for leaving home in the UK is twenty-four, but those who have been in care are expected to leave much earlier on. 

Image courtesy of marin at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The Fostering Network also produced a briefing (which you can download from this page), that states:

"Many young adults who have left the care system struggle to reach the same levels of educational attainment as their peers. They are over represented in prison populations, and are more likely to be unemployed, single parents, mental health service users and homeless than those who grew up within their own families...

The attainment gap between looked after children/care leavers and non-looked after children is wide.  In 2011, 40% of the general population was in higher education compared to only 7% of care leavers. The older an individual is when they leave care the more likely they are to remain in education."

Having to leave care before they are eighteen interrupts children's education. This article, in The Guardian, gives two examples of this. A girl, who was approaching her sixteenth birthday, and studying for her GCSEs, was told by the local authorities that her placement could no longer be funded, and was shown hostels where she could live. Another girl, who, in the run up to her eighteenth birthday, was studying for her A Levels, was told that her foster place could not be supported any longer. She would have had to leave college and go on income support. 

Whilst costs will be involved with extending payment to foster carers, the Guardian article points out that such a scheme would not be so expensive, based on the results of the Department for Education's pilot, called Staying Put. The Fostering Network's briefing also points out that costs to the public purse are incurred through supporting and treating young adults who have left care, and who are experiencing various problems, given in the quote above.

I hope that this amendment will be selected for debate and that it will be accepted. Much more needs to be done to support vulnerable children and young people leaving care.

Back with a New Report on Children in Custody!

Things have been a bit hectic these past few weeks, but I am now back again and have a new report to share!

I have been involved with a new project on children in custody, which is being coordinated by the Children's Rights Alliance for England (CRAE). The project is called Ending Violence Against Children in Custody. It aims to: 

Image courtesy of worradmu/www.freedigitalphotos.net

"...empower children and young people with experience of custody to investigate the views of other children and young people in custody, to work together to determine their own recommendations for reducing violence in custody and to develop their own campaigning activities."

The project looks at the situation of children in custody in five European countries: Austria, Cyprus, England, The Netherlands and Romania. I helped with researching the domestic rules governing custody for children and young people in each country. You can see a summary, as well as the total population of young prisoners in each of the countries, here.

I have also been helping with other reports to do with this project. This week, CRAE released a report which focuses on children's experience of violence in custody in England, and gives their recommendations for achieving violence-free custodial settings. A group of young people, with experience of custody, are now campaigning on two of the recommendations. You can see the report here and the accompanying press release here.

Children in custody, like all children, have the right to be protected from all forms of violence, under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.  Further, experiencing violence in custody cannot help, and rather, would hinder, any reform or rehabilitation of children in custodial settings. Article 40 of the Convention says that children who are accused of being, or who are, in conflict with the law, must be treated in a way which:

• promotes their sense of dignity and worth;
• reinforces their respect for human rights and the fundamental freedoms of others;
• and promotes their reintegration, with the children assuming a constructive role in society.

This cannot happen if those in charge of custodial settings themselves use violence against children and young people, or if they do not create a setting which prevents the children and young people from being violent towards each other. I like CRAE's project because it addresses these issues, and empowers children and young people to take action.

To learn more, and to follow the progress of the Ending Violence Against Children in Custody project, you can visit this website: www.violencefreecustody.org.uk. I will also post further updates from the project on this blog.

The Gift of Music for Children

Today is a good day for spreading the benefits of music to children! My organisation, CHW, is having a "coffee and cash-in" event this afternoon, to raise money for a children's music therapy project we are supporting in Argentina. When planning this, I didn't know that it was also Playing for Change Day, an initiative started by the Playing for Change Foundation (PFCF). It is a day of action, using music to create positive social change. Musicians will play at events all over the world, and bring music into the lives of young people. You can see a list of the events, or watch some shows online, here.

A while ago, I wrote about the benefits of music for children and it was great to learn about PFCF's work. The PFCF states that it is "dedicated to the fundamental idea that peace and change are possible through the language of music." It funds music programmes in different countries and aims to ensure that anyone with the desire to receive a music education has the opportunity to do so. The children from one of the programmes it set up, Ntonga Music School. in the township Gugulethu, near Cape Town, will be performing this afternoon. Some of my friends in Cape Town are going to support them, and I wish I could be there to hear them play too!

Closer to home, I attended the event, "A Moment's Peace" in London, over the summer. Children and young people from different choirs all sang together. The World Heart Beat Music Academy, in London, provided them with an environment to get together and rehearse for the event. On its website, it is stated that the Academy "envisions a world where music as a universal form of communication, bridges cultural, political, economic and linguistic barriers." This is another great project, showing how music can create positive social change.

I have seen how music can have such a good impact on children's live through my work in Romania too. One organisation CHW supports there, FAST, runs a music project for Roma children. It allows Roma children and youth to fight against discrimination by showcasing their musical ability to the community. I have been to some of the performances by the children who are a part of FAST's music project and they were amazing! The children gained confidence from being part of the project and were able to develop their musical talent. It was something for them to work towards and be proud of.

The project CHW is currently fundraising for in Argentina has a different aim. We are working with Talleres Apadro, an organisation which runs a rehabilitation centre. The children that attend have various disabilities and other special needs. The staff there know how much music therapy will benefit these children and help give them space to express themselves. I really hope we are able to reach our aim of £2220 to help with their project. If you have any ideas for fundraising, or want to help out, please do get in touch.

Room for the Project!

During my last trip to Argentina, the staff at Talleres Apadro showed me

this room, where they want to hold their music therapy programme. I hope we can

fill it with instruments and all the resources they need!

You can follow our progress with fundraising for the music therapy project here:

I must go and attend our fundraiser for the music therapy project now! I am wishing all the best to those taking part in performances around the world for Playing for Change Day!

A Good Education is Essential for a Bright Future

"I believe the children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way..."

Attention had been drawn to the failures of the UK education system following the row over the marking of GCSE English grades this summer. Exam boards may face a legal challenge after changing grade boundaries between January and June. This meant that pupils who sat the exam in January were marked more generously than those who took the exam in June. This is awful for all the young people personally affected by what has happened this year, but there has been concern about inadequacies in the British education system for a while now, and perhaps the public outrage over this will finally bring about change. The Head of one school said that GSCEs are "insufficiently rigorous" while Sir Michael Wilshaw, the Head of Ofsted stated that this is an opportunity to look at the UK's education system and ask "whether it stands up with the best in the world." International tests have shown that it does not.

Image courtesy of imagerymajestic/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

UK Standards have Slipped

Back in 2010, it was reported that UK schools had slipped down in world rankings, following the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) tests in 2009. These tests, held every three years by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), are taken by fifteen year olds in participating countries and economies. British school children were ranked 23rd in the world, down from 12th in 2000. In an increasingly globalised world, this is worrying for the future prospects for the children and young people educated in Britain. As Sir Michael Wilshaw observed:

"Our youngsters, when they leave school, will be going into a global marketplace, they have to compete not just against competitors here but against the rest of the world."

So who are the children who are receiving the best education today, that will allow them to compete the most successfully when they enter the workforce tomorrow? 

Leading the Way 

Image courtesy of photostock/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The late Whitney Houston sang the lyrics which are at the top of this post as part of her song, "The Children Are Our Future." The children who are taught well will be able to lead the way. According to a BBC News article, those children are likely to be from China. The article, entitled 'China: The World's Cleverest Country?' states that Shanghai came top in the 2009 Pisa tests. The results from this round should be published late next year. 

The article showed the leaders in previous years. Other than Finland, all of the top performing pupils are from Eastern Asia. The following are the results in three areas tested: reading, maths and science, respectively.
           

• 2000: Finland, Japan, South Korea
• 2003: Finland, Hong Kong, Finland
• 2006: South Korea, Taipei, Finland
• 2009: Shanghai, Shanghai, Shanghai

It was questioned whether Shanghai's results would be representative of other, less prosperous areas of China. However,  Andreas Schleicher, the head of Pisa, said that unpublished test results from nine provinces in China show that pupils in other parts of the country are performing strongly, including those from rural and disadvantaged backgrounds. This is an important point, which I will come back to.

Investing in our Children; Investing in Our Future

Investing in an education system will have long-term benefits for a state's economy, as it will lead to producing skilled workers, who are able to compete in a global economy. President Obama has said that: 

"...countries who out-educate us today will out-compete us tomorrow. Businesses will hire wherever the highly-skilled, highly-trained workers are located."

Some countries give greater priority to investing in their education systems than others. On a recent trip to a poor province in China, Schleicher saw that schools were often the most impressive buildings, whereas in the West, these were more likely to be shopping centres. He said of China: 

"You get an image of a society that is investing in its future, rather than in current consumption."

Subsidising consumption, whilst cutting funding to areas such as education, is a pattern journalist and author, Fareed Zakaria, has noticed in the US. He said that decisions and policies made in the 1950s and '60s, which led to the development of a great public education system and to massive funding for science and technology, were some of the important factors which allowed America's economic growth. Now, Zakaria said, countries including Germany, South Korea and China are making large investments in education, science, technology and infrastructure. If the US continues to cut investments in these areas, it will fall behind.

Image courtesy of imagerymajestic/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

So how is the UK doing in terms of expenditure on education? National budget cuts in response to the recession have affected the education system. Last year, the Institute for Fiscal Studies released a report, "Trends in Education and Schools Spending" which looked at proposed cuts and their impact. Last month, a Guardian article expressed worries over cuts to the Department for Education's capital budget. It is not just investment itself in the education system that is a concern, but the ability to invest wisely. After the Pisa assessment in 2009, Toby Young, a Telegraph blogger, pointed out that the UK was ranked 8th when it comes to spending per pupil, but its position in the league table was 23rd. The UK spent an average of $60,000 per pupil, between the ages of six and fifteen, compared to $40,000 in Poland and Estonia, but Poland and Estonia were both ranked higher than the UK in the league table. Only seven other OECD countries spent more per pupil than the UK, showing there are more factors to take into consideration than funding alone.

Improving the Education System

Keeping Standards High

Long before the issue of the grading of GSCEs this summer, people have argued that there has been a "dumbing down" of exams in the UK. A report by Ofqual, released in May, which investigated certain subjects at GCSE and A Level showed that they had become less demanding over the last decade. Professor Jonathan Jansen, the Dean of the University of the Free State, South Africa, said in a CNN interview, that in South Africa, the standards are low, with pupils being able to pass some subjects with thirty or forty per cent, all the way up to grade twelve. He commented:

"... it's like we don't get it that in a modern interconnected economy you better be up there playing with the best"

Lowering standards and "dumbing down" exams degrades a country's education system and affects the future of everyone who goes through it. 

Another issue is where educational standards are lowered for part of the population. As I mentioned above, results in China showed pupils were performing strongly, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds. A problem in the UK, the US and some other Western countries is that expectations have been lowered for pupils from underprivileged backgrounds.  Demanding high standards from pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds allows these pupils to do well, despite their difficult circumstances. In various countries, including China, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Finland, OECD researchers found that more that 40% of disadvantaged pupils excelled at school, exceeding expectations, given their background. The UK, however, was found to have a greater variation in reading standards, due to class differences, than almost any other country in the OECD. In this area, just 24% of pupils in the UK performed better than would be expected given their backgrounds. Schleicher has said that accepting lower expectations for poorer children was - 

"the big trap in the 1970s. It was giving the disadvantaged child an excuse - you come from a poor background, so we'll lower the horizon for you, we'll make it easier. But that child has still got to compete in a national labour market."

Lowering standards has long-term detriments for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, ultimately making it more difficult for them to succeed in the future.

Image courtesy of Phaitoon/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Good Examples

Other factors also come into play, with regards to increasing the standard of an educational system overall. South Korea, for example, has done well in the league tables. South Korean pupils attend school 220 days per year, compared to the US's 180. South Korean pupils also study at least three hours more than those in the US, per school day. South Korea may be well ahead of the UK and the US in Pisa's rankings for its test scores, but it comes 24th out of thirty developed countries for "study effectiveness". Finland is ranked at the top for study effectiveness, but has the least number of school hours in the developed world. 

Some distinctive elements of the Finnish system include: 

• the fact that children of all abilities are taught in the same class; 
• there are no school league tables and only one set of public exams; 
• children usually have the same teacher from year to year; 
• the state prescribes the curriculum but teachers are free to decide how to teach a subject; and 
• the high standard of teaching, with teachers being drawn from the top 10% of graduates and also being required to have a master's degree.

You can see more facts about the Finnish education system here. The UK Government has been reported as being inspired by the Finnish system. The OECD has said that the quality of teachers is key to raising education standards. Schleicher stated that teachers need to be given "status, pay and professional autonomy." Finland and Singapore recruit high-achieving students to the teaching profession and have two of the most successful education systems in the world.

Another of Schleicher's recommendations is to partner top-performing schools with less successful schools in the area. In the UK, some schools are "coasting" along and "doing so-so." There is room for improvement and partnering with schools that are performing well has proved to be a very successful strategy in Shanghai.

A Good Education

Image courtesy of PaulGooddy/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A good education will equip children and young people with the skills to compete in the global market, but we must not forget the other aims of education too. Martha Nussbaum reminds us in her book "Not for Profit" that:

"Anxiously focused on national economic growth, we increasingly treat education as though its primary goal were to teach students to be economically productive rather than to think critically and become knowledgeable and empathetic citizens. This shortsighted focus on profitable skills has eroded our ability to criticise authority, reduced our sympathy with the marginalised and different, and damaged our competence to deal with complex global problems. And the loss of these basic capacities jeopardises the health of democracies and the hope of a decent world."

This will now be a big challenge to achieve, but it is so important to be able to give young people the skills they need for the future and the tools they need to be good citizens and productive members of the global society. As well as improving the quality of education so that it teaches these qualities, all pupils must benefit from the education system. Commenting on the success of the Chinese system,  Schleicher said:

"Anyone can create an education system where a few at the top succeed, but the real challenge is to push through the entire cohort."

I, along with others, are hoping that this row over the GCSEs marking can act as a springboard for Government to take action to improve the quality of British education and to ensure that all children in the UK will benefit from this. We are talking about our future.

London+20: Part 2

In my last post, I promised to share the link, once the final report for our London+20 event came out. I am really happy to say that the report has been released! You can view it by clicking here.

The focus of London+20 was sustainable development, in the lead up to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (aka Rio+20).  Our London event was aimed at youth, and all the issues are important for children and youth, and future generations too. More details are in my previous post, and, of course, in the Report itself!

Some of the others on the organising committee mentioned arranging a second event, following the progress since Rio+20. If this goes ahead, I will post the details on this blog, so you can have the opportunity to participate.

London+20: Part 1

June was a very busy month! I was involved with quite a few children and youth projects and events. I will write some posts on these, giving links, in case any of them interest you.

They are: helping to organise London+20 - a youth conference which took place in the run up to Rio+20; attending the Taking the Rights Steps Conference, on children's rights, at Swansea University, where a new children's rights Observatory was launched, and organising two fundraisers coming up in July for Children's Helpers Worldwide.

London+20

London+20, 5 June 2012

The UN conference on sustainable development took place in Rio de Janeiro from June 20 - 22. The movement, MyCity+20, encouraged young people to organise simulations and have their own conferences on sustainable development, in the run up to Rio+20. I was on the organising committee for London+20. 

The morning started with some talks from representatives of various organisations and then the participants were split into working groups with the themes: Informal Education for Sustainable Development; Green Jobs for Youth; Global Governance for Sustainable Development; and Sustainable Cities. Everyone then came together at the end of the afternoon and presented the outcomes of each working group. I have made some brief notes on the sessions here, which you can download, if you are interested. (It really is all in note form, so if someone else produces a report from the day, I will provide a link to it!)

Many have been disappointed with the outcome from Rio+20, as it was too weak. If we really care for the welfare of today's children, and future generations too, we must take action to make sustainable development a reality, or we will be handing over a world in a very poor state. The links below can be starting points for finding out more information and taking action:

Here are links to the organisations represented during the morning sessions at London+20:
1. Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future
This is a great site for keeping updated with global sustainable development issues.
2. Ecocide is a Crime
Join the campaign to make ecocide a crime.
3. Commonwealth Youth Climate Network
Network for young climate activists across the Commonwealth.

Another interesting campaign I heard about at London+20, was Future Justice and their campaign for a Ombudspersons for Future Generations. You can see their website here.

If you have any questions about London+20 or have any useful links of your own to share, please leave a comment!

Help CHW Host a Service Project in Time for the Olympics!

Children's Helpers Worldwide (CHW) has been invited to take part in a campaign with an Olympic theme, and you can be involved! The theme of the service project is youth, health and sports. 

We need ideas, volunteers, partners and participants, so there are really are lots of ways you could get involved! The event would be in London, as this is where we are based, but if you have ideas, or have done a similar project that we could now organise as well, it would be great to hear from you, wherever in the world you might be!

Details of the Campaign

The Campaign is being run by Global Service Leaders (GSL). They have just launched a new campaign, called "Relay Volunteerism."  The idea is that organisations in different countries will form "teams" and host a service project (a volunteering event). Each week leading up to the Olympics, a different country will host their event (like the Olympic torch is relayed across countries). GSL would like the grande finale to be in London, as this is where the Olympics will be, and hopes we could host our service project in the week starting July 20. I have pasted GSL's full details of the Campaign at the bottom of this post.

The Campaign focusses on youth, sports and health, so any service project should involve youth and focus either on sports or health (or both, if possible!). I asked what sort of projects GSL had in mind and this was their reply:

"For the Campaign we want organizations to host a service project involving youth and highlighting sports and health. Some ideas are park and playground clean-ups, sports day, etc. This campaign can help fundraise for the organization involved, as long as the association with the Relay Volunteerism Campaign is there."

As it can be a fundraising event, I would love it if it could raise money for CHW! One of our current projects is related to health - we are trying to raise funds to start a children's music therapy project for a rehabilitation centre in Argentina. We are also trying to fundraise for a playground project in Ghana, and support for this would be great too.

Making it Happen!

I realise that July is not too far away! If you would like to be involved and can help, we would need the following to make it possible:

1. Ideas!

If you have an idea for an event that relates to this theme, please let me know. 

It would hopefully be a relatively simple idea... and one where we could easily sort out a venue.

2. Volunteers

If you are happy to help out with this event, whatever idea we eventually come up with, please let me know. It will be great to have help on the day, as well as with the planning leading up to it. 

Please also forward this on to anyone else who you think would want to volunteer.

3. Partners

If you are a member of an organisation, if or your work or community may want to get involved with hosting the service project, please let me know, or get any interested people to contact me. GSL will be featuring all organisations involved on their website, so it is a good chance to get some publicity. We would all work together on hosting the service project.

4. Participants

Depending on the type of event, either children/youth will be volunteers on the day (like with the park clean up idea), or the event will be for them (like with the sports day idea). Schools will be closed for the summer holidays by 20 July, which is a shame, as it might have been easier to link with a school and run a project with them. If anyone has links with summer schools/youth projects and think the young people there may like to be involved, let me know.

(NB - I am just using the examples for events that GSL gave - I am looking for other ideas for events!)

I know we are starting from scratch here, but I really think we have the potential to host a service project, and it will be great to involve young people here in London! 

Get in Touch!

If you want to be involved with the service project and can help with any of the above, you can contact me either by email: catherine "at" chworldwide.org, or you can leave a comment under this post.

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GLS's Information on the Campaign

Below are the full details GSL has posted. 

In light of the upcoming Olympic Games, Global Service Leaders (GSL) is proud to announce a campaign highlighting the values of teh Olympic Spirit. GSL brings together members from across the globe to facilitate the sharing of ideas adn resources; with our new campaign "Relay Volunteerism" we aim to blend the visible and invisible aspects of the Games emulating one of the most unique aspects of the Olympics: The Torch Relay. With "Relay Volunteerism" we are looking forward to a new approach that draws in our collective resources as Global Service Leaders.

We have taken inspiration from the Olympic mottos of "Inspire a generation" and "Faster, Higher, Stronger" and encourage emphasizing Sports, Health, and Youth aspects of volunteering in this summer campaign.

Campaign Features:

• Each country that signs up will become a "national team" (e.g. Team GB, Team Cameroon, etc.)
  • Each team has to have different organizations working together to create a national campaign (highlighting Sports, Health, or Youth).
  • We are looking to get organizations that may not usually interact with each other to come together as a team and host a national campaign.
  • We encourage organizations to bring in partners to set up the campaign and to join GSL as new members.
• Each team will have one week "bearing the torch". During that one week:
  • The country will be highlighted on GSL.
  • The organizations involved will be spotlighted on GSL.
  • Members from organizations will be featured and interviewed.
  • Members and organizations involved will be asked to submit photos, blog posts and testimonials to feature.
• We have a tentative start date of June 8th or 15th depending on how many countries sign up.