Child to Child stories for health education

October 2014

Each of these storybooks deals with a different health topic. They are intended to support science, social studies, and environmental science, home economics or health science curricula and of course, English language! Each book has been written by an experienced educationalist in conjunction with a team of health and language specialists.

Click on the title of the storybook below to download it:
Storybook

  • Abdul and Seri – and how children with diarrhoea need liquid just as a flower needs water
  • Bad Medicine – and why you should never monkey about with drugs without asking a health worker
  • Cricket Land – and why playing too near the road could make you OUT for life
  • Dirty Water – and how children can look after their health through their choice of water
  • Fatima Gregoire and the Others – learning the real truth about HIV/AIDS from someone who has the virus himself and has learned to think positively
  • Half Size Health Workers – and how a young man called ‘the beard’ helped some twelve-year old ‘freedom fighters for health’ show the adults how to promote their rights
  • The Killers’ Committee – and why Mr Polio and his friends fear the older children who tell everyone about immunisation
  • The Lion Has Fever – and how the clever partridges saved his life by keeping him cool and giving him the right drinks
  • The Little Girl On The Step – and how Julio and Marta made friends with her and made sure she did well at school before she even got there
  • Not Just A Cold – and how Andrew saved the life of his baby sister because he knew the ‘signs’
  • Old Chicken Eyes – and why not eating fruit and vegetables can seriously affect your chances of catching your dinner
  • Sam and Dina – and how looking after my little sister made me a star
  • Soonam Is Hungry – what happens when she bites you, what to do then and how to stop her from spending malaria

 

Call for conference presentation proposals on children’s rights

October 2014

The newly established Institute for Human Development (IHD) at the Aga Khan University invites proposals for presentations at its inaugural conference to be held in Nairobi, Kenya on 12-14 February 2015. Proposals will be accepted until 21 November 2014.

The presentations should address one or more of the following issues:

  • Child rights/social protection/social justice
  • Meeting the needs of vulnerable children: children impacted by developmental disabilities and health impairments, HIV infection and AIDS, and other forms of developmental adversity; children growing up under conditions of conflict, social strife, political turmoil, or rampant natural disasters
  • The role of industry and public-private partnerships in child care and ECD provision

For more information on the guidelines, please click here.

To apply, visit the IHD website.

Behind the statistics are children and communities devastated by Ebola

September 2014

Our Enhancing Primary Education project in Sierra Leone has been extremely affected by the current Ebola outbreak, which has been spreading throughout West Africa since early 2014. Our implementing partner Pikin-To-Pikin, have been responding to the impact of the outbreak on communities and particularly children.

ebola west africaMédecins Sans Frontières – Doctors Without Borders (MSF) – declared the outbreak “out-of-control” in June 2014 – when over 300 people had died of Ebola and condemned the governments and international community for being too  slow to put in place appropriate measures to stop the spread of the disease. MSF recently declared that Ebola has claimed at least 2,461 lives in the five affected countries – Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Senegal.

In Kailahun district – where our project was taking place – has been quarantined since early August, with heavy restrictions on freedom of movement and gatherings, such as youth clubs and school programmes. Consequently, all schools have been closed and our project has been put on hold.

Nevertheless, our partner Pikin-To-Pikin is doing whatever it can to continue providing support to the children and communities we are working with.

Their team is working with key health agencies supporting efforts to slow down the spread of Ebola. This has involved working with the District Health Management Team and the Health Education Department at the district and national levels respectively. Pikin-To-Pikin has participated in radio programmes and has gone to villages to spread the messages about Ebola. It has also distributed hygiene and sanitation materials to chiefdoms around Kailahun, and has led Ebola-sensitisation activities at the community level.

DHMT staff teaches Community Sensitisation Committee members chlorine mixture.

DHMT staff teaches Community Sensitisation Committee members chlorine mixture. Credits: Pikin-To-Pikin

Material distribution in Kissi Teng chiefdom.

Material distribution in Kissi Teng chiefdom. Credits: Pikin-To-Pikin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A number of interlinked issues have combined to create an environment conduicive to the spread of ebola. These include cultural practices, such as washing the dead, which can expose people to the virus; ignorance about the means of infection; deep-rooted stigma that many sick people face as a consequence of their infection which prevents them seeking medical attention; all compounded by inadequate health care systems.

The challenge now is that with travel restrictions many people are reluctant to go to their farms or attempt to sell their products. Consequently, food is rotting whilst people don’t have enough to eat. An economic crisis is also potentially looming as most commodities prices have dramatically increased. As MSF have reported, this is  no longer simply a public health issue but a fully-fledged humanitarian crisis.

The other largely ignored impact of the Ebola outbreak relates to people who are affected by other health conditions but are unable to access health care provision that was already inadequate before the outbreak began. It has been reported that children are at a greater risk of dying from malaria and measles today because some clinics have closed and some medical staff are reluctant to work. Likewise, patients with HIV/AIDS are unable to have their routine check ups nor access their drugs, as preference is given to transporting drugs that can potentially be used to treat Ebola. In many cases, they may simply be too afraid of visiting a health centre altogether.

The Ward Councillor receives materials for her ward.

The Ward Councillor receives materials for her ward. Credits: Pikin-To-Pikin

Special needs of children are (as is often sadly the case) overlooked.

In times of emergency children are significantly more vulnerable to malaria, fever and diarrhoea-related diseases, as their immune system is weakened by the lack of food.  Many children have also been orphaned as a result of which children desperately need psychosocial support and the special attention of the government and the emergency organisations.

Mr Abdulair D. Swaray, Executive Director of Pikin-To-Pikin Movement said in a press release “we believe that it is very important to support not only the obvious medical needs of these children who have been orphaned by Ebola but to find ways and means to address the emotional issues that overwhelm them”.

We thus join Pikin-To-Pikin in asking for the different actors fighting Ebola to take affected children into consideration in their response plans and address their special needs. We commend Pikin-To-Pikin’s actions towards fighting off the disease. We are very proud to call them our partners.

Child to Child’s co-founder, Dr. Hawes, believed in children’s potential to inspire change

Child to Child is sad to announce that our co-founder, Dr. Hugh Hawes, passed away on 3rd July 2014 in London. He will be deeply missed but his legacy will live on.

Hugh

 

Before becoming full time Director of Child to Child Hugh worked as an educationalist in various countries, among them Uganda, Great Britain, Nigeria and Indonesia. Susan Durston, one of our trustees recalls some memories of Hugh in the early days of Child to Child.

Hugh was my tutor at University of London Institute of Education in 1976/7. His creativity and groundedness came through so it wasn’t a surprise when the following year he wrote to many of his alumni (as did David Morley of the Institute of Child Health) with their idea of Child to Child and how children could improve the lives of other children largely through health activities, although this soon evolved into a broader focus on care and play, and children as change agents in their communities.

My own initiation came at the first workshop when alumni from health and education got together to brainstorm ideas. We explored which topics and what processes could be used introduce ideas, when in many societies children were to be seen and not heard? There were many eminent professionals in attendance, apart form Hugh and David, including Professor Ransome-Kuti from Nigeria (subsequently one of Nigeria’s most forward-looking Health Ministers), Professor Moos from India, Bev Young from the British Council, Audrey Aarons, The Chowdarys from Bangladesh and many others.

Activity sheets were conceived and written and the ideas began to turn into concrete actions. Many simple technologies such as ORS, conceived in David Morley’s camp, found a channel of dissemination. One of Bev’s sons even invented an origami spoon to measure the salt and sugar! What was good about this was that activity sheets with a concrete action, such as recording which children were immunized, could, in schools, turn a boring maths lesson into something active, fun and meaningful…..if only the teachers would be brave enough to try them.

Hugh’s passion and enthusiasm spread throughout the group and I remember a hive of activity as ideas were formulated and shared. At the end of two weeks there were around 20 activity sheets with ideas for more.

Hugh was ace at getting sponsors for Child to Child. One workshop was wholly sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation at Bellagio on Lake Como in Italy. That was more of a “how to” workshop, resulting in the birth of training materials, and the series on children into ..Science…maths etc..

Hugh was as at home in a rural Uganda location as at Bellagio. I remember a workshop he and his wife Colette participated in, in Western Uganda, where Child to Child was led by Violet Mugisa. His sense of fun and purpose were infectious, and his willingness to share personal anecdotes from his own life and his considerable experience was notable. Child to Child readers followed and Child to Child as an approach crept into curricula and schoolbooks.

Somewhere along this route, Child to Child was awarded the Maurice Pate Prize by UNICEF.

Hugh’s passion for this idea and his willingness and vision to grow it, persisted until the end of his life. In his last few years he was influential in brokering the “Getting Ready for School” partnership between Child to Child and UNICEF.

From from a tiny office in London this simple idea which builds on the roles children play in many societies as sibling carers has become a worldwide movement. It was not a prescriptive project with huge funds, but a visionary idea, taken up by practitioners working with children and youth around the globe and demonstrating Hugh’s vision – that children can make a difference.

Tributes

Tricia Young, Child to Child’s Director, is proud to continue his incredible legacy: “Hugh was such a towering and inspirational figure, who also embodied those wonderful qualities of charm and humility – a rare combination. Perhaps my fondest memory of him will always be a presentation he gave at an introductory session to Child to Child here at the IOE when he warned participants that Child to Child may look soft and fluffy, but in fact it’s really like catching a tiger by its tail. Such a beautiful image which well captures both the work and the man himself. Although I didn’t know him well, I will miss him greatly and only hope that we can do honour to his legacy with the work we continue to do with children around the world.”

Our Programmes Manager, Christiana Brown, knew Hugh on a personal level too and is deeply saddened by his death: “Hugh was a great man yet very humble. He has been an inspiration to me throughout my career as both a promoter of and practitioner in children’s participation. He was part of the team that trained me in the Child to Child approach in Ghana as far back as 1994 and since then I have been privileged to call him and his lovely wife Colette, my friends and mentors. Hugh has done more for children worldwide than we can begin to fathom. He lived life to the fullest and we have a lot to celebrate as he made a huge impact on our world. May he rest in God’s perfect peace.”

 

 

To learn more about:

Our founders Professor Morley

Our principles Our vision and mission Our strategy Our people Our board of trustees Our history

Our history

1978

David Morley and Dr Hugh Hawes, respectively a paediatrician and professor at the Institute of Child Health and an educationist at the Institute of Education, conceived the idea of children working together with other children to bring about change.The Deputy-President of the World Health Organisation presided over an inaugural meeting which brought together Pr Morley, Dr Hawes and others interested in developing and disseminating Child to Child’s approaches.

A commitment was made to spread Child to Child resources copyright-free.

1979

International Year of the Child.

First major Child to Child project: the Little Teacher Programme in Botswana.

Publication of the first Child to Child resource book.

21. YF and YL session [1]1983

Launch of Child to Child Health Education Programme in 30 Ugandan schools.

1984

Translation of Child to Child materials into French, to promote implementation of Child to Child activities in Francophone countries.

1986

Creation of the Centre for Research and Development to promote Child to Child activities in India.

1988

Establishment of the Child-to-Child Trust, with a 3-year grant from the UK Ministry of Overseas Development and an annual funding support from UNICEF.

1989

Adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child at the United Nations – entry into force the next year.

Establishment of the Arab Resource Collective to develop and expand Child to Child activities across the Arab World.

Introduction by Save the Children of Child to Child activities into primary schools in Nepal.

1990

Establishment of the first Niño a Niño organisation in Central America, in Mexico, soon to be followed by Ecuador.

1993Book health

Establishment of a National Task Force on Child to Child in Kenya.

First edition of Children for Health, which has been translated in numerous languages including, Arabic, Farsi, French, Gujarati, Hindi, Portuguese and Spanish.

1994

Launch of a comprehensive Child to Child School Health Promotion programme in India (SEHAT). This initiative was later on emulated in Pakistan.

First time the Child to Child approach is taught as part of the Teachers Training curriculum in Uganda.

First-known use of Child to Child activities in refugee camps in Bhutan and Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo).

22 500 children reached as part of a Child to Child project in Sierra Leone that focussed on sanitation and malaria, in the midst of the civil war.

1999

Launch of a Child to Child Mine Awareness Programme in Kosovo.

2000

First child-centred programme addressing the issues faced by children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS in Kenya and Uganda.

Launch of a Child to Child programme in Lewisham, South London.

2004

Reception of a Comic Relief UK grant to support the development of four regional Child to Child resource groups (the Arab Resource Centre Lebanon, the CHETNA India, the Health Action School Pakistan and the KANCO Kenya).

2007

Commission by UNICEF to develop an Early Childhood Education programme, piloted in 6 countries. Find out more here.

Print2012

Establishment of a Child to Child American office in Chicago.

2014

Change of the name: the Child-to-Child Trust becomes Child to Child.

 

To learn more about:

Our principles Our vision and mission Our strategy Our people Our board of trustees Our founders

Our people

Our Trustees and Executive team

Susan Durston is an advisor in education and committed to equity in and through education in its broadest sense. She has been associated with CHILD to CHILD for many years, participating in materials and strategy development, and a board member since 2013. Her professional experience spans primary school teaching, University lecturing, and extensive programme management and technical long-term field experience in low income countries. Her long-term experience has been in Papua New Guinea, Uganda, Zambia, Malawi, India and Nepal, from where she also undertook frequent additional assignments in Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Maldives and Bhutan. Short-term assignments, which she still undertakes, have taken her additionally to Nigeria, Botswana, Indonesia, Vanuatu, and the Solomon Islands, and to Turkey (over 5 years) to evaluate UNICEF’s contribution to the education of Syrian refugees. As the former Associate Director, Education Programmes and Global Chief of Education for UNICEF. She led many initiatives, was UNICEF alternate member of the Board for the Global Partnership for Education, and co-chaired the Global Education Cluster, for Education in Emergencies.

She has worked for DFID, the European Commission, and at country, region and headquarters in UNICEF. In two previous postings, she had the opportunity to work in the health sector as well as the education sector, and situates her views in political economy as well as practice. She likes to work in a team and to mentor younger colleagues. Her passion now is building the capacity of children to participate their communities and realise their rights, through CHILD to CHILD, an organisation committed to child participation.

A national of the U.K. (Wales), she now lives in France, near Geneva Switzerland. She is a graduate of Cambridge, The Open University and London University Institute of Education in the U.K., and she carries on the Welsh tradition of choral singing.

CelineCeline Vatterott Woznica, Director of Child to Child of the Americas based in Chicago, Illinois, USA

Celine’s responsibilities include developing a network of programmes throughout the Americas that incorporate Child-to-Child methodology and the promotion of rights-based participation of children in issues that affect them. Since first participating in a Child to Child trainers’ workshop in Nicaragua in 1982, she has developed Child to Child programmes in Nicaragua, Mexico, Haiti, and inner-city Chicago and Gary, Indiana. She has provided numerous workshops on Child-to-Child methodology and the creation of spaces and techniques to allow for children to express themselves and be heard. Celine lived and worked for 11 years in Latin America, including Honduras, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Mexico. In addition to Child-to-Child methodology, her other areas of expertise include the training of community health workers, immigrant and refugee health needs, popular education techniques, and Freirian methodology. She earned her MPH and DrPH from the University of Illinois School of Public Health.

Helen Walker has been working with Child to Child as an Early Childhood Advisor since 2014. She has worked in children’s programmes for many years and developed training and resource materials with a particular focus on equity and inclusion. Helen also has experience working in HIV/AIDS programmes supporting adolescents and young people. She currently lives in Melbourne and works in children’s services addressing poverty and disadvantage.

Chie Takahashi has worked as an education specialist and a researcher for international organisations, such as UNICEF and the World Bank, both at headquarters and in country offices, including in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Kenya and Kosovo. Her expertise includes formal and non-formal primary education, community-driven development, gender, aid partnerships and effectiveness. She had technical advisory roles to ministries of education and development agencies. She also conducted qualitative and quantitative research, and provided evidence-based policy recommendations. Chie has devoted her focus on equity and inclusion in education, as well as in intra- and inter-organisational learning in the aid sector. She holds a PhD in Continuing Education/International Development from the University of Warwick (2003) and an MA in Development Studies at the University of Leeds (1999). She has recently completed two diplomas of Montessori education training for early childhood and lower elementary.

Sarah Huxley is a highly experienced Youth and Child specialist, with over twenty years in the International Development sector working for a variety of organisations and grassroots groups including multi- laterals (such as UNFPA), bilaterals (such as FCDO), INGOs (such as ActionAid International), foundations (such as the Open Society), and with young people directly. She has initiated, led, and supported programme and policy initiatives across a range of thematic areas, including youth participation, governance, livelihoods, gender and social inclusion, and non-formal education. Her PhD focuses on the relationship between fun and learning with a play and movement based not for profit, Coaches Across Continents. She offers deep technical capabilities in learning and capacity building, knowledge exchange, and partnership development, including skills in participatory workshops, and inclusive facilitation. As a trustee she brings an outstanding track record of starting or taking an existing research/programme/policy initiative and driving it into original areas. 

nirusiya-shaathvegan-project-officerNiru Shaathvegan is a dedicated child rights professional, passionate about engaging in the initiatives to protect the rights and well-being of children and young people. Niru studied at Sri Lanka Law College (2009), gaining a First Class Honours degree in Law and was later awarded a scholarship to pursue a Master’s degree in Law (LL.M) at University of Wales. In addition, Niru also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations, Sociology and Economics from the University of Colombo. Niru started her career as a Legal Officer for ChildLine and later worked as Programme Officer for a Child Protection project funded by GIZ, Sri Lanka. Having established her career goals in the field of children’s rights and child protection, Niru has since completed an MSc in Children’s Rights from Cambridge Anglia Ruskin University. She first joined Child to Child in 2016 as an intern on the Child Rights Capacity Development programme and now plays a key role in implementing Child to Child’s work.

Our Advisors

Gerison Lansdown was the founder director, 1992-2000, of the Children’s Rights Alliance for England, and has since worked as an international consultant and advocate, publishing and lecturing widely on the subject of children’s rights. She has been involved in the development of several general comments for the Committee on the Rights of the Child, including on right of children to be heard, to play and recreation, on the rights of children both during adolescence, and, currently, on rights in the digital environment. She was also involved in the drafting of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Publications include The Evolving Capacities of the Child, Innocenti Research Centre, 2005;  Article 31, in A Commentary on the CRC, Oxford University Press, ed J Tobin, 2019; Children’s Rights Institutions, in The Oxford Handbook of Children Rights Law, ed J Todres and S King, Oxford University Press, 2019; Recognising children’s rights in relation to digital technologies, in Research Handbook on Human Rights and Digital Technologies, ed Wagner, Ketteman and Vieth, Elgar Publishing, 2019; Strengthening child agency to prevent and overcome maltreatment, in Child Abuse and Neglect, 2020; Exploring the meaning of child participation, in The Children’s Senator, ed V Caputo, McGill-Queens Press, 2020. She is an adjunct professor at University College Cork, and Carleton University Canada, has an Honorary Doctorate from the Open University, University of East London,  and Carleton University, an Honorary Fellowship from the University of Central Lancashire, and is on the editorial advisory board of the Canadian Journal of Children’s Rights. She chairs the ODI Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence Advisory Board.

Sonal Zaveri is India based, with over 30 years’ experience in strategic planning, program design, capacity building, mentoring and evaluation. She has a PhD in Social Work and was a Fleishman Fellow at Duke University, USA. She has worked in more than 25 countries in Asia, East and West Africa, Asia-Pacific, Central Asia, Middle East and Eastern Europe at grassroots, sub-national, national, regional and international levels bringing a broad contextual experience. She has worked with CBOs, NGOs, INGOs, foundations, academic institutions, government, and multilaterals.

Sonal’s interests relate to how rights, participation. transformation and gender are addressed through collaborative, culturally responsive and learning oriented evaluation approaches and methodologies. She has multiple publications including book chapters, journal articles, monographs and manuals. She has worked extensively with children and adolescents and included principles of children’s participation in several sectors such as education, health, community mobilization, and gender in both humanitarian and development contexts for program design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

She holds regional and global leadership positions – founder and board member of Community of Evaluators South Asia; coordinator of GENSA, Gender and Equity Network South Asia; co-chair EvalGender+, member of the EvalPartners Coordination Committee, board member of IEAC (International Evaluation Academy) and IDEAS and a core member of the S2SE – South to South Evaluation which addresses asymmetries in global evaluation.

Peter DPeter Dixon is an independent consultant and trainer on child rights and child rights programming with more than 35 years’ experience in International Development, including 14 as a country director with VSO (Uganda and Belize), Sight Savers (East and Southern Africa Region) and Save the Children (Nepal and Sri Lanka). Peter has facilitated many strategic planning processes, with thematic, country or regional scope, involving programme reviews and the facilitation of child rights situation analyses. He has been a principal author in several publications, including, Leave No Child Out,  Action for the Rights of the Child, Child Rights Situation Analysis Guidelines, as well as the design and delivery of online child rights focused courses for Human Rights Education Associates (HREA) and others. For the past 7 years he has been part of the Child to Child team supporting the “6 Principles” Child Rights Capacity Development Programme supporting 60 Oak Grantees working in the field of Child Abuse to build their capacity to better apply child rights principles in their work.

Jon Stutfield is a digital and communications consultant, focussed on supporting charities and nonprofits. He is supporting Child To Child on an ongoing basis to help deliver digital projects and campaigns, including e-learning initiatives.

Jon has worked with many small and large nonprofits over a 25 year career, including The New Humanitarian, Humanitarian Leadership Academy and Institute of Statelessness and Inclusion. He also works in a number of voluntary positions, as a board member, mentor and consultant, helping charitable organisations use digital strategically to achieve their objectives and become more effective.

Tricia Young is the Director of Global Systems Change at the Lumos Foundation. Part of her portfolio is overseeing the comprehensive child participation work, which ranges from child and youth participation in national programming; national, regional and global youth advocacy; and ensuring accountability to children and youth through youth advisory boards. Prior to this, she ran Terre des hommes UK for 3 years. Between 2010- 2018 she was the Director Child to Child. She is a founder trustee on the board of the UK Global Fund for Women.

Violet Mugisa has a 30-year experience working with children in and out of schools using different methodologies of participatory development. She has experience in using the Child-to-Child approach to health or children’s rights and in integrating PRA, PLA, LFA, with Child-to-Child approach to come up with community-led projects for children. She has also worked in project design, implementation and monitoring; materials design and production; and project evaluation. Violet has facilitated workshops and training – with the use of Visualization in Participatory Programming – and child participation programmes. She has also supervised teachers’ teaching, trained teachers in participatory teaching methods and trained caregivers in pedagogy skills, i.e. Mediated learning experiences (MLE). She has worked extensively with Save the Children, Plan International, UNICEF, WHO, World Vision, Comic Relief etc. and is currently a freelancer.

Annabel TrappAnnabel Trapp has been working to promote the rights of children since 2005, with particular focus supporting the application of child rights-based approaches in organisations working with children. She joined Child to Child in 2015 to manage a capacity building project supporting over 60 organisations (based in East Africa and Eastern Europe) to operationalise child rights principles, and to facilitate the project’s emerging community of practice. She also represents Child to Child on the steering group of the INGO Children’s Participation Forum. Annabel has an MSc in Violence, Conflict and Development from SOAS, University of London and MA in Social Anthropology with Development from the University of Edinburgh. She lives near Amsterdam.

Anise_copyAnise Waljee has conducted consultancies in various domains, including environmental and health education, early childhood education, inclusive education policy and practice, and organisational change and strategic planning in and for various NGOs in London, Lebanon and Pakistan. Born and brought up in Dar es Salaam, Anise worked in the British civil service on employment services for disabled people before being introduced to a career in education. Among her many roles over the years, she managed the Agha Khan Foundation education programme for Tajikistan, working with the government to reform the education system; her role as team manager included oversight of curriculum and materials development, educational management, community mobilisation, capacity building, facilitating decentralisation and school autonomy. Anise worked in East Africa, Canada, East Timor, Albania and Central Asia, and speaks fluent English, Urdu, Tajik and Kiswahili. Her personal interests include literature, music, theatre, photography and storytelling to name a few.

CarolynCarolyn Conway has been working to promote the rights and participation of children and young people since 2006 when her association with Child to Child began. She has been teaching and training teachers for over 25 years, writing teacher training manuals and designing courses for teachers in Europe and Asia, primarily in Laos and Bangladesh. She completed a Master’s degree in Education and International Development at the Institute of Education, University of London in 2006. She managed Child to Child’s Hearing All Voices programme which supported UK schools to improve the life chances of disadvantaged children and young people. She is writing professional development materials to introduce coaching techniques as a way for adults to enhance their support of young people’s participation and develop their social and emotional learning. She is especially committed to transforming working practices in schools to make them more participatory environments in which young people have a voice.

GrazynaGrazyna Bonati has worked with Child to Child for over 20 years, in many regions of the world – as she can work in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. After working at Child to Child for over four years, she began freelancing and extended her range of training skills to cover Child Participation; Child Rights; Working with Children; Gender Issues; Advocacy; HIV/AIDS; Memory Books; Orphans and Vulnerable Children; Disaster Risk Reduction and Non-Violent Conflict Resolution. Grazyna trains people who work with children to do so in a participatory way, and involve them increasingly in community development, whether in terms of health education or more general themes. She has also been involved in project design, evaluating projects and particularly in looking for ways forward to improve project work. She has written several manuals and helped in the production of others.

IMG_2945Penny Boreham is an experienced radio producer and broadcaster and has been the series editor of ‘Pikin to Pikin Tok’, and more recently ‘Fambul Tok’. She also produced and presented an hour long BBC World service documentary about ‘Pikin to Pikin Tok’. She is an award-winning radio documentary maker and radio drama producer, working for both the BBC World Service and BBC Radio Four. For fifteen of her thirty years working in radio, Penny was a Senior Producer at the BBC World Service.  Penny is passionate about using radio and audio to empower children to share ideas and speak their mind. As a result of this, she launched her own charity ‘SoundAffects’ to enable children to connect cross-culturally, and share their ideas and dialogue about their deepest concerns. She has worked extensively for the Open University, creating podcasts with academics in order to enable them to talk accessibly, but still subtly, about their research. Penny is also experienced as a trainer, mentoring younger radio journalists.

 ClaireClaire O’Kane has been an international child rights consultant since 2011, after working for Save the Children for many years. She is a qualified social worker with two decades of international experience in child rights, participation, protection, care and peace building work in development and emergency contexts, particularly in Asia and Africa. Claire has particular expertise in supporting child-led organisations, networks and partnerships with adults enabling children and young people to be recognised as active citizens. Her 50 publications include: Guidelines for children’s participation in humanitarian programming, Save the Children 2013; Children and Young People as Citizens: Partners for Social Change, Save the Children, 2003.

How Kennedy changed his life thanks to health child to child clubs with Ace Africa

This is the story of Kennedy, a young man who has had the chance to encounter Child to Child’s approach in his childhood, and how it has influenced his life.

Kennedy at Kenyatta University, where he studies Statistics.

I was born on 19th July 1990 in a village in western Kenya.

By age six, my parents had died to what I later learned was HIV/AIDS. My aunt took the responsibility of raising me, my brother and my sister. As I started my primary education, in 1996, my aunt struggled to provide for my essential needs, for my school uniforms and books.

I thus had a hard time going through primary school. Although I used to perform very well, at some point in standard five I was overwhelmed by many problems which affected my class work and general performance – lack of school uniforms, books and pens, lack of support from relatives and insufficient food. We were never sure if we were going to have our one meal per day. It is not that our aunt did not want to feed us but she could not afford it; we had become an extra burden. When there was nothing to eat we would chew on pieces of sugarcane and retire to bed. This was a very difficult time of our life.

Nonetheless, our good aunt kept on encouraging us to persevere. I remember her telling me to work hard in my academics in order to help the family and the rest of the community in the future. “I do not want to see this happen to your children,” she said, “you need to have a happy and comfortable life with your family and help the needy in the community.” So whatever the difficulties, I pressed on and continued to work hard at school thanks to her encouragements.

In 2003, while I was in standard seven, Ace Africa came to our school and started a health club called ‘Child to Child’. There, they asked us to write essays about our experiences related to HIV/AIDS in the community and made us talk about HIV/AIDS for the first time. That made me want to know more, and I was chosen as the leader of the club. We were trained on how to make kitchen gardens, conduct peer counselling, good hygiene and about child rights.

We used to hold ‘Child to Child’ meetings at school on a weekly basis, in which we would discuss problems we faced at home. They also gave us information about HIV/AIDS, its effects and how to treat the infected people. This really helped the community members because we would then pass the information to them and it helped to reduce stigma and discrimination against those living with HIV/AIDS.

In the club we were also taught about the effects of early and unprotected sex. I noticed a very big change within one year, as teenage pregnancies and school dropouts were not as common. As a young growing person I really benefited from these topics – I was able to understand that being an orphan was not the end of my life. I got encouraged and settled at school and my performance improved.

Ken 2In 2004 I passed my final primary exams and topped the school results. It was a surprise to many people; they did not expect me to perform that well given all the difficulties they saw me going through. I was offered a four-year secondary sponsorship by Ace Africa; Ms Waddington, the founder of Ace Africa, paid my school fees for the four years in High School and provided me with everything I needed both at home and at school. She has actually become like my mother, as she is the only “parent”, or guardian, who has been providing for my needs up to now.

I performed well in my secondary school exams and managed to secure a chance in a public university, Kenyatta University, where I am currently undertaking a Bachelor of Science degree in Statistics and Programming. My mum, Joe, continues to pay for my tuition fees and provides me with extra cash for my upkeep while in college.

When on holiday I offer my services as a volunteer with Ace Africa, in appreciation for all they have done for me. Without Ace Africa I would probably be working as herdsman/boy somewhere in the village.

I now have all it takes to get what I want for my future. My future is brighter thanks to this club which encouraged me and enabled me to cope with life and have a positive outlook on life. Ace Africa is truly changing lives!