The European Union (EU) has inked an agreement to provide $75.7 million in funding for a new national advocacy project being spearheaded by local child rights non-governmental organisation ChildLinK.
Ambassador Jernej Videtič, Head of Delegation of the EU to Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname and the Dutch OCTs and Omattie Madray, Managing Director of ChildLinK, yesterday signed the contract to implement the project, according to a statement issued by the EU.
The grant for the “Child Rights Alliance” project is being funded from the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) 2014-2015 country allocation for Guyana.
The statement said the overall objective of the project is to strengthen national collaboration for the prevention of violence and abuse against 6,000 children through improved networking, influencing policies and practices and advocacy in regions 3, 4 and 5 by June, 2018.
It noted that the activities foreseen under the grant are expected to complement work done already by ChildLinK under three previous grants, totalling over $86 million, which were funded from previous EIDHR calls for proposals put out by the Delegation.
“Human Rights are one of the core values of the European Union and its Member states. The European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights provides the possibility to support civil society projects in this area also in Guyana. The rights of vulnerable groups, especially children are particularly important in this regard and the ChildLinK proposal convinced us. We look forward to a successful implementation,” Ambassador Videtič was quoted as saying at the signing of the agreement.
Madray said ChildLinK’s vision is a Guyanese society where children are growing up in safe families and communities. The new initiative, she explained, builds on its previous and ongoing work, and, in particular, the work of Child Advocacy Centres, which were all funded by the European Union. “Whilst the centres will continue to provide services to abused children, greater emphasis must be placed on prevention of abuse of children, to give more children a better chance to grow up without the trauma of abuse,” she said.
The new project, she added, will build a national coalition led by the Rights of the Child Commission to work strategically with stakeholders across all regions creating higher levels of awareness of child abuse to safeguard children from all forms of abuse.
According to the EU statement, there are regular calls for proposals for funding under the EIDHR, which is a self-standing financing instrument that provides assistance for the promotion of democracy and human rights worldwide and specifically aims at assisting civil society to become an effective force for political reform and defence of human rights.
ChildLinK Inc previously received three EU grants and completed activities under one of them—the HUG project—in 2013. The statement said the HUG project, which was implemented over a 30-month period, was envisioned with the principal objective of improving the lives of Guyanese children experiencing violence and domestic abuse. It noted that the project exceeded its stated objectives in sensitising almost two thousand 2,000 children from the Agricola and Ruimveldt communities, who were able to access services and information to enable them to realise their rights to protection from abuse.
The EU added that two ongoing actions that were also funded are aimed to provide children with an opportunity to grow up in environments that are safe, secure and conducive for their all-round development. “Their collective focus is to ensure that children receive direct psychosocial support in the form of counselling and family support to help them develop resilience in their varying situations and where possible, to accommodate changes,” it said. It noted that these interventions will contribute to ChildLinK working directly with 500 children; 300 in alternative family-based care comprising of foster care and kinship care; and 200 who are at risk of losing parental care.
The EU said it is envisaged that the new grant will complement the work already undertaken and the beneficiary will be working along with its partners over the next 30 months, including relevant government agencies such as the Childcare and Protection Agency, towards the effective roll out of the activities planned under the project.
