Following the success of Arigatou International’s previous online courses, the third round of Ethics Education for Children: A Transformative Pedagogy for Learning to Live Together was conducted from 15-28 June 2021. Sixty-six participants from different countries joined the course, offering a diversity-rich environment that helped prompt fruitful dialogues and a diverse exchange of experiences.
During the course, participants explored how to create safe learning environments for children, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and with the challenge of school’s closures and distance learning, among other limitations. They discussed the ethical challenges brought by the pandemic and its implications for children and youth in their own contexts and explored ways to empower children in addressing these issues.
Participants were introduced to Arigatou International’s Ethics Education Approach, which presents a transformative pedagogy that places children at the center of the learning process, making them drivers of their own learning and agents of positive change in their communities. During the sessions, participants discussed how educators can empower children by ensuring their meaningful participation and providing physical, emotional and spiritual safety.
As part of the course, a webinar was held to reflect on the importance of ethics education for children, particularly during the pandemic. Speakers included Dr. Scherto Gill, Guerrand-Hermes Foundation for Peace; Dr. Xiaoan Li, The Fetzer Institute; Ms. Lilis Musyaropah, Teacher Associated Schools of UNESCO; Prof. Amr Abdalla, University for Peace, and Dr. Vinu Aram, Shanti Ashram.
This series of online courses is part of our response to the COVID-19 pandemic to support educators in ensuring children’s social, emotional and spiritual well-being through reflections and tools to foster ethics education. The course was coordinated and facilitated by Mr. Suchith Abeyewickreme, Program Officer of Arigatou International Geneva, Ms. Jane Nyaga, Senior Officer at the Kenya Institute for Curriculum Development, and Ms. Laura Molnar, President of Education for Change, Romania and GNRC member.
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In the framework of Geneva Peace Week 2021, Arigatou International and Safe to Learn organized the workshop Prevention of Violence Against Children in the School Environment to raise awareness of the impact of violence in school settings.
The session highlighted the importance of safe learning environments for children’s development and well-being. Participants helped brainstorm practical and innovative solutions to respond and prevent violence in schools.
The workshop took place on 1 November 2021 with the participation of 50 participants from over 20 countries. Facilitators shared the ethics education framework as a pedagogical tool for creating safe learning environments free of violence and developing competencies in educators to empower children to positively reflect and address violence around them.
The interactive workshop provided opportunities for participants to discuss and challenge social norms and behaviors that condone violence in schools and collectively explore methodological approaches that promote positive practices and inclusive educational spaces.
The workshop was facilitated by Ms. Anne Waichinga, Education and Child Protection Specialist – Kenya; Ms. Laura Molnar, President Education for Change Association – Romania; Mr. Vijayaragavan Gopal, Head of the Youth Leadership Program, Shanti Ashram – India; Ms. Zvonimira Jakic, youth Advisor of the Presidency – Bosnia & Herzegovina; and Ms. Vera Leal, Senior Ethics Education Program Officer, Arigatou International Geneva.
The session was moderated by Ms. Maria Lucia Uribe, Executive Director, Arigatou International Geneva. Concluding remarks were provided by Dr. Chloë Fèvre, Director, Safe to Learn Global Initiative.
Geneva Peace Week is a leading annual forum in the international peacebuilding calendar and the flagship event of the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform. The thematic focus on 2021 was “From seeds to systems of peace: Weathering today’s challenges.”
We thank the panel of facilitators for their commitment and support, and the participants for their enthusiastic engagement.
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Arigatou International supported the organization of the Faith and Child Safeguarding Summit a platform for religious institutions, faith-based organizations, academics, and religious leaders to come together, exchange insights, experiences, challenges and best practices on child safeguarding in religious and faith-based contexts.
Spread over 4 days, with 93 international speakers, and nearly 2,000 attendees, this summit ran from 8-11 November 2021 and was specifically designed to help give faith organizations a platform to demonstrate their commitment to child safeguarding.
Ms. Maria Lucia Uribe, Executive Director of Arigatou International Geneva moderated an inter-faith panel titled Faith, Spirituality and Child Safeguarding: An interfaith conversation around preventing Spiritual Abuse on 08 November.
“There is a critical need to protect children who are victims of spiritual abuse, and therefore to create mechanisms or systems to ensure their protection. We also need to empower children to speak up to protect others and to develop their resilience,” she said in her opening remarks.
The discussion included Dr. Denise Ziya Berte, Ph.D., Executive Director at Peaceful Families Project; Rabbi Diana Gerson, Associate Executive Vice President at New York Board of Rabbis, and Dr. Patricia Espinosa Hernández, member of the CEPROME Latin-American Council.
The dialogue focused on spiritual abuse, coercive control and abuse of power in religious institutions. It provided a space for deepening the understanding of spiritual abuse, and for sharing strategies for detecting it and addressing it.
The panel contributed to identifying actionable recommendations and building on promising practices of Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities across the world, to disrupt the chain of harm, reaffirming imperatives for protection, and standing against the perpetration, enabling, or silencing of spiritual abuse.
An inter-faith panel moderated by Ms. Silvia Mazzarelli, Regional Coordinator Global Network of Religions for Children for LAC, and Ms. Vera Leal, Senior Education Officer at Arigatou International Geneva was held on 11 November. The session was titled Enhancing Child Safeguarding in Faith Communities through Child Participation: Multi-faith Perspective Across Regions, and it looked at child participation as a central pillar of child safeguarding.
Members and partners of the Global Network of Religions for Children (GNRC) in Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia, shared their experiences on the practical application of child participation and implications on violence prevention and response, in Buddhist, Christian and Muslim communities.
The panel was composed of Mr. Guillermo Niño Fernández, Pastor, Methodist Church of México; Zam Obed, Field Officer, Childslife-Kenya; Ms. Azam Sahih de Matin, founder of the Institute of Education in Virtues for Human Development, and Ms. Opor Srisuwan, Project Coordinator of Assessing Child Protection, International Network of Engaged Buddhists.
The dialogue provided a unique space to explore challenges and opportunities to create religious spaces that are age-appropriate and child-friendly and equip children to stand up and break the silence on their own abuse, while also working with faith leaders, families, and caregivers.
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Ms. Maria Lucia Uribe, Executive Director, Arigatou International Geneva, was invited to speak at the Second Asia Regional Conference on Ending Violence Against Children During COVID-19 and beyond.
The Conference was held from 1-5 November 2021 and organized by UNICEF, End Violence Partnership and World Health Organization. The five-day conference, organized in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, aimed to place ending violence against children high on the recovery agenda, while drawing on the framework of INSPIRE: seven strategies for ending violence against children developed by WHO, UNICEF and other partners to drive forward evidence-based action.
“As we near the end of 2021, we have identified many important lessons. One is the need to ensure that children are not left behind, and that violence prevention and response efforts are centred in COVID-19 response and recovery strategies,” said Dr Takeshi Kasai, WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific.
Ms. Uribe took part in the session on “Engaging non-traditional partners in supporting scalable and sustainable parenting programs” to speak on the role of faith communities in up-taking and upscaling parenting programs.
Ms. Uribe spoke about the work of Arigatou International through its dialogue model that brings together religious leaders and actors, government organizations, academia, the health sector, and multilateral agencies. Through this model, stakeholders engage in reflections about the scientific evidence and theological principles on the impact of violence in child upbringing. It explores how to strengthen positive norms, challenge those that condone violence, and nurture children’s social, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
She highlighted the work of Arigatou International and its Global Network of Religions for Children (GNRC) during the pandemic with faith communities to support parents and caregivers and presented the materials developed during this time.
Ms. Uribe also shared about the work of the International Consortium on Nurturing Values and Spirituality in Early Childhood and the development of a toolkit on Nurturing the Spiritual Development of Children in the Early Years. The toolkit is meant for faith communities and faith-based organizations to support caregivers in promoting nurturing care and positive parenting practices through play, positive experiences, and safe and empowering environments. She shared that the toolkit will be launched in 2022, allowing its scale-up through the major faith-based organizations in the world and collaboration with international organizations such as UNICEF and many other partners.
The session was moderated by the Oak Foundation, with the participation of The Human Safety Net Foundation.
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The collaborative project “Creating a Culture of Encounter – Empowering Youth through Education to Challenge Xenophobia, Discrimination and Exclusion in Europe,” took off in September 2021 with a partner’s meeting in Lisbon. The project, which seeks to reach 100 young people from Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain, aims to empower and enable youth to become agents of transformation in their communities.
Kick-off meeting in Lisbon
The Culture of Encounter project intends to create shared spaces for young people to further develop their knowledge, attitudes and skills and get acquainted with meaningful tools that can encourage them to actively engage with their communities. Participants will be encouraged to question and transform the narratives of hate speech and discrimination, contributing to creating a culture of encounter, mutual understanding, respect, and solidarity in Europe.
The project will include both online and in-person participatory workshops for youth to experience active citizenship and learn to utilize intercultural and interfaith tools that can help create a culture of encounter in their communities. They will participate in story-telling and social media workshops to document and share their experiences and the outcomes of their projects.
Participants will reach out to their schools and communities and initiate youth-led projects to create new narratives of mutual understanding, belongingness and respect. They will also develop social media campaigns to mobilize more young people in Europe, raise awareness, share their experiences, and influence positive change.
Pilot Workshop in Spain
Sixty educators from the participating countries will be provided with pedagogical tools to support the youth initiatives. Online opportunities will be created in April and June for teachers from all the participating countries to come together and to build capacities on Child Participation and Empowerment, and Project Development. An online platform has been created to support the engagement of educators on a trans-national level.
By supporting educators’ professional development and mobilizing young people to influence and engage others through their initiatives, this Project will reach and transform a wider community of youth who will feel empowered to contribute to challenging the mistrust between communities, creating new narratives and enhancing solidarity across Europe.
A kick-off meeting, which took place in Lisbon, from 30 September to 2 October 2021, brought together the facilitators’ team from all the countries involved as well as the leads from the partner organizations. Following this meeting, two training sessions for facilitators were conducted in November for the teams in Portugal and Spain. A teacher and youth training is expected to take place in Italy by mid-April.
Creating a Culture of Encounter is a collaboration between Arigatou International, the Aga Khan Foundation, the European Wergeland Centre, the Guerrand-Hermès Foundation for Peace Research Institute, and Scholas Occurrentes.
Pilot Workshop in Portugal
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