Arigatou International Geneva Office and United Religions Initiative (URI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enhance their working cooperation to foster children's well-being in the world.
From left: Mussie Hailu, URI Director of Global Partnerships; Mrs. Maria Lucia Uribe Torre, Director of Arigatou International Geneva; and The Rev. Victor H. Kazanjian, Jr, Executive Director of URI.
The agreement was signed on December 18, 2019 by The Rev. Victor H. Kazanjian, Jr, Executive Director of URI, and Mrs. Maria Lucia Uribe Torre, Director of Arigatou International Geneva.
The two organizations have agreed to the following preliminary and overarching areas of cooperation:
About URI
URI (United Religions Initiative) is a global grassroots interfaith network that cultivates peace and justice by engaging people to bridge religious and cultural differences and work together for the good of their communities and the world. The purpose of URI is to promote enduring, daily interfaith cooperation, to end religiously-motivated violence, and to create cultures of peace, justice, and healing for the Earth and all living beings. URI has UN NGO consultative status with both the Economic and Social Council of the UN, and with the Department of Global Communications of the UN.
URI envisions a world at peace, sustained by engaged and interconnected communities committed to respect for diversity, nonviolent resolution of conflict, and social, political, economic, and environmental justice.
URI implements its mission through local and global initiatives that build the capacity of its 1,035 member groups and organizations in 108 countries, called Cooperation Circles, to engage in community action such as conflict resolution and reconciliation, environmental sustainability, education, women’s empowerment, youth and children’s programs, advocacy for human rights, and promoting a culture of peace and interfaith harmony.
About Arigatou International
Arigatou International is an international, non-profit organization committed to building a better world for children. Arigatou International is “All for Children,” and draws on universal principles of common good to offer compelling new ways for people of diverse religious and cultural backgrounds to come together to address children’s issues.
An initiator and sustainer of partnership-based initiatives to secure child rights and foster children's well-being, Arigatou International seeks to maximize the potential of interfaith cooperation, and always strives to empower and involve children and youth.
Holding special consultative status with UN-ECOSOC and consultative status with UNICEF, Arigatou International liaises and works jointly with UN agencies and other NGOs to foster cooperation within a rights-based approach to the profound issues faced by children and youth today. In 2008, Arigatou International and its Global Network of Religions for Children, in collaboration with UNESCO and UNICEF, launched Learning to Live Together – An Intercultural and Interfaith Programme for Ethics Education.
Learning to Live Together is a programme for educators (teachers, youth leaders, social workers) to nurture ethical values in children and youth that will help them strengthen their identities and critical thinking, ability to make well-grounded decisions, to respect and work with people of other cultures and religions, and to foster their individual and collective responsibilities in a global community.
Learning to Live Together has been implemented in more than 30 countries and benefited more than 400,000 children and youth. More than 1,200 facilitators have been trained on how to use the manual.
For further information please contact:
Arigatou International Geneva
Email: geneva(at)arigatouinternational.org
www.ethicseducationforchildren.org
With a concrete action plan and the commitment of implementing it along 2020, concluded the second annual meeting of the International Consortium on Nurturing Values and Spirituality in Early Childhood for the Prevention of Violence.
To commemorate the 30 years of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, on 20 November 2019, Arigatou International launched a new online space developed in close collaboration with the four members of the GNRC Youth Committee 2019.
The purpose of this platform is to share Arigatou International's approach to work with children, to create more meaningful spaces to listen to their voices and to share resources towards advancing children's safeguarding and participation.
With a panel discussion gathering more than 120 participants, the Multi-religious Study on the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) “Faith and Children Rights” was launched at the United Nations in Geneva, on 19 November 2019, as part of the commemorations of the 30th anniversary of the CRC.
The Multi-Religious Study was developed by Arigatou International during a period of one year, in collaboration with UNICEF, the former Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Violence against Children, the Global Network of Religions for Children (GNRC) and with the support of KAICIID and World Vision International.
In November, Arigatou International participated in the Geneva Peace Week by hosting a panel discussion “Enhancing Peacebuilding Initiatives with the Integration of Early Childhood Development Programs” that took place on 4 November 2019.
Panelists discussed the importance of early childhood for peacebuilding, the costs associated with the lack of investment and quality in early childhood programs for children and for societies; the influence of issues like displacement, conflict, inequalities and violence against children on early childhood outcomes and what can be done to address them.
