Thanks to your generous support of the Big Give Christmas Challenge in December 2019, we beat our target of £25,000 and raised an amazing £25,562. This is helping to:
- Develop e-learning materials and courses that train organisations and children to advocate for the rights of street children, both nationally and globally.
- Provide cheap, sustainable training solutions which are culturally relevant and available in different languages, utilising expertise from street children, our members, and thought leaders across the sector.
- Create a pool of skilled trainers, working at grassroots level and ensuring their voices are heard.
Since December, the lives of street children have dramatically shifted as the Covid-19 pandemic has taken hold in countries around the world.
Street children are at greater risk in this emergency and the significance of this work is now more important than ever. Public health measures and increased competition for access to health services mean that street children are suffering more, with services to protect street children such as shelter, healthcare and virus prevention experiencing unprecedented increase in demand.
The use of e-learning and skilled in-country trainers provides a safe, effective way of helping street children understand their rights during this pandemic, helping them to stay safe from harm.
Achievements since December:
- We have developed powerful materials to raise awareness during the Covid-19 crisis: including information notes on the rights of street children during the pandemic, and short videos to address myths and share other information.
- We are creating a course to provide e-learning for organisations who support street children on how to speak up for their rights. This is currently being tested ready for it to start being shared with other organisations.
- A new social media-style platform especially for street children is being designed based on knowledge we have gained through previous work to put them in touch with one another digitally. Once up and running the platform will allow children to share experiences in a safe environment, while sharing more confidential resources in secure groups on the platform. This will allow children who have previously been very isolated to interact with one another; increase our reach; and provide a place to share the child-friendly e-learning materials we are developing.
- We are developing a programme of support for our community-based trainers to reach out to street children and national practitioners to help them speak up for street children’s rights, throughout the pandemic and beyond.
- We have been hosting regional webinars so that our members working directly with street children throughout the Covid-19 pandemic can share challenges, good practices and lessons learned with other organisations across their region. We have so far held webinars for West Africa, Eastern, Central and Southern Africa, South Asia, South East Asia, Latin America and Europe.
We look forward to updating you further on our progress and thank you to everyone who supported the Big Give Christmas Challenge: your support is having a far-reaching impact for street children around the world.