POSTED February 24, 2023
What’s Children Believe’s strategy for helping kids access education and reach their dreams?
Watch our video to see how we provide children with the tools and training they need to be voices for change
By Danielle Daley, digital community coordinator
At Children Believe — together with families, communities, coalitions, businesses and governments — we help kids break barriers holding them back from accessing education and realizing their dreams.
“We are working with Children Believe, establishing schools, building schools, extending school facilities, also providing educational materials like library books,” explains Yasabu Berkneh, the director general of school improvement with the government of Ethiopia.
Meanwhile, our four strategic pathways to change make all this possible: we support thriving communities, advance child rights and protection, promote equality for girls as well as partner with children for change.
Sponsor a child today and join us in helping more kids access education and reach their dreams.
Empowering youth through education
-music-
Linda Hiebert:
Two-hundred-and-sixty million children is a lot of children who are not going to have a future that they need.
Dr. Assefa Bequele:
The abuses, the violations, the prejudices, the exclusion the children face is a very, very serious challenge.
-music-
Linda Hiebert:
So we’re talking about children, not only in the urban areas, but also in the most remote areas — the last mile. Children at the last mile are children who really do suffer the most.
Yasabu Berkneh:
We are not able to maintain children in school, because we are not able to provide the basic facilities.
-music-
Dr. Assefa Bequele:
Children Believe is, in my view, an outstanding organization.
Yasabu Berkneh:
Children Believe works in one of the most priority areas that needs the attention of everyone.
-music-
Linda Hiebert:
Children Believe made strides in getting access for children in a number of countries.
-music-
Dr. Assefa Bequele:
Perspective of looking at the situation of the child in the context of community life, and its search for solutions by engaging the community and addressing the needs and the challenges of the community, I think is, spot on.
Hon. Salifu Saeed:
I myself have gone to see some of their projects in some of the deprived communities.
Hon. Salifu Saeed:
Organizations they have been able to get introduced to provide some school buildings, provide furniture, even sometimes, how to get to [school] — because their communities are far away from some of the schools, from their communities. They have been able to provide bicycles to some of the children so that they can get to school on time. When the NGOs are leading this advocacy of these developmental issues the people, the community members, they appreciate it, and they own the process.
-music-
-children repeating after facilitator-
Yasabu Berkneh:
We are working with Children Believe establishing schools, building schools, extending school facilities, also providing educational materials, like library books.
Dr. Assefa Bequele:
One of the aspects of Children Believe [is to] develop programs that A: monitor the voices, the views of children and young people and; B: engage them in decision-making.
-music-
Dr. Assefa Bequele:
The exclusion girl children, in particular, face is a very, very serious challenge, and you really cannot talk about the promotion of child rights without first focusing and putting girls at the centre of your child-policy agenda.
Dr. Belinda Bennet:
[In] Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, child marriage is quite common, but India has 30 percent of the global child brides. So, therefore, we wanted to address that — Stop the Child Marriage Now campaign, giving that powerful message: we can do it now. Children are to experience their childhood, and they need to be educated. They need to go through school, build skills for their future.
Dr. Belinda Bennet:
This campaign had two, three elements. For example: talking to children, talking to the teachers, the decision-makers, the policy makers. We have our analysis to show 1.2-million people reached; thousands of children took a decision that they will not be married, they’ll complete school; thousands of parents took decisions. And, more importantly, the community, the kind of shared beliefs was being questioned.
Dr. Belinda Bennet:
Stop Child Marriage Now message, and our message is, children should stay in school and be educated and realize their full potential and their hopes and dreams.
-music-
ABOUT CHILDREN BELIEVE:
Children Believe works globally to empower children to dream fearlessly, stand up for what they believe in — and be heard. For 60+ years, we’ve brought together brave young dreamers, caring supporters and partners, and unabashed idealists. Together, we’re driven by a common belief: creating access to education — inside and outside of classrooms — is the most powerful tool children can use to change their world.
About ChildFund Alliance:
A member of ChildFund Alliance, Children Believe is part of a global network of child-focused development organizations working to create opportunities for children and youth, their families and communities. ChildFund helps nearly 23-million children and their families in 70 countries overcome poverty and underlying conditions that prevent children from achieving their full potential. We work to end violence against children; provide expertise in emergencies and disasters to ease the harmful impact on children and their communities; and engage children and youth to create lasting change and elevate their voices in decisions that affect their lives.