Learn how to defend ourselves

The purpose of the project is to establish the necessity and to show the real ways of protecting children's rights through conducting various educational work with schoolchildren and educators in the five pilot regions of Ukraine using innovative technologies.

Knowledge about the rights of the child and the skills of their protection among schoolchildren in educational institutions of Ukraine is an important step towards democratization of Ukrainian society and human rights protection.

Although Ukraine has ratified international instruments aimed at protecting the rights of the child, information on children's rights is not fully disclosed. One-sidedly highlights the rights of children and society. For the most part, in recent years, it is about the right of the child to have a family, the right of orphans for adoption.

So in January 2010, the last State report on the situation of children in Ukraine was published on the results of 2008, summarizing "Implementation of the right of the child to education in the family." There are a number of issues that have to be addressed urgently. This is recognized even by the heads of the relevant department of the Ministry for Family, Youth and Sports. An important task, in particular, is to preserve the health of the child, to provide access to high-quality medical care, irrespective of the place of residence and social status of parents, obtaining high-quality education. Issues of counteraction to the involvement of children in criminal activities, prevention of trafficking in children, prevention of various forms of violence against children, including the Internet, and the spread of social problems for adults and children, remain pressing. The system of working with children who are in conflict with the available law does not meet the modern needs of society. The pressing issue of the formation of the juvenile justice system remains unresolved.

Improvement of the situation in the field of the protection of the rights of the child may be promoted by special information campaigns aimed, in the first place, at the youth themselves, training programs in schools, educational activities among schoolchildren, parents and teachers. It is these aspects in the field of vision of the project.
The proposed project is extremely important and relevant, as there is still no systematic training of children for the protection of their rights in Ukraine. There is no method of conducting constant informational work in this area in schools. The innovation of the project is that systematic work with students is carried out by interactive, up-to-date tools using the "peer-to-peer" method.

The project's effectiveness is ensured through cooperation with: the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the departments of education and the departments of family and youth affairs, city centers for social services for families, children and youth, other governmental institutions and non-governmental organizations.
The project should provide children and educators with the knowledge and skills regarding the protection of the rights of the child. Through various innovative interactive forms, information on the ways and forms of child rights protection is disseminated in the children's and adolescents' schools in five pilot regions (Kyiv, Odesa, Crimea, Lutsk, Dnipropetrovsk). )

Within the framework of the project, five groups (for each pilot region) have trained young trainers who, using the "peer-to-peer" methodology, conduct educational and informational work among schoolchildren in their region: trainings, debates, performances of the gender interactive theater and forum-theater, etc.

All innovative forms of educational activity concerning the protection of children's rights are summarized in the educational-methodical manual "We Learn how to Protect yourself ", which is issued and distributed for further work in educational institutions of Ukraine. This guide was made unique by the fact that young trainers of the organization worked on its creation, having experience in conducting equal training and knowing the needs of children and young people.

In the implementation of the project, in addition to representatives of young people, there are teachers from schools that receive the necessary training and a manual for further work with schoolchildren during training seminars held in the regions of Ukraine.

Within the framework of the project, the Internet resource "We learn how to protect yourself" has been updated, which will summarize the materials and experience gained in the project, and will help in the further implementation of information and educational work among youth in the field of children's rights protection.