The Child Rights Ambassadors of the Foundation are our 14-17 years old volunteers.
This January we were still working with a five-person ambassador group who have joined the Foundation in the summer of 2018. Our goal for 2020 was to involve children in as many areas of our work as possible, moreover our numerous projects also lead us to think about the need for expansion. Consequently, we announced a call for ambassadors in December 2019 to open the program for more children. Following the interviews and a workshop in January our team was welcoming 10 new members. Further changes happened, which lead to 11 ambassadors working at the Foundation in the second half of the year. You can read more about our ambassador group here. During the summer of 2020 we also cooperated temporarily with child volunteers who had joined in the work of the Foundation for predefined periods and tasks.
What projects were the children involved in?
Our child volunteers have a very diverse and colourful work because they review documents for children, share their thoughts on various topics, participate in research, give presentations at conferences, respond to journalists’ queries, raise awareness to current problems and difficulties and advise adults at the same time.
- Participation in research:
- peer researchers in INCLUDE, a program dealing with international child abductions.
- review, dissemination and promotion of the InternetMost research supported by Magyar Telekom
- Campaigns and awareness raising:
- sharing their opinion about the NAT (NCC – National Core Curriculum) published in 2020
- preparing materials on the Covid situation (family contract, Yelon-article, „What kind of parent are you?” quiz)
- supporting international consultations (EU strategy, Covidunder19)
- Instagram campaign on language learning/distance learning
- participating in the international conference on child friendly justice (ChiLLS conference)
- Review and advising:
- the child-friendly version of our Child Safeguarding Policy of the Foundation
- cooperation with NMHH (National Media and Infocommunications Authority) about gyerekaneten.hu pages
- materials on child friendly justice with the aim of supporting professionals in providing information to children (ChiLLS program)
- helping to test the Foundation’s chat bot and preparing the FAQ on children’s right
- materials for the webinar on safe use of Facebook
- materials on questionnaires for children
- proofreading articles published on yelon.hu from a child perspective
- Representing the Foundation and the Child Rights Ambassador Program:
- participating in an accredited training on internet use and internet safety
- media relations, interviews
- representing the „How you see it?” campaign at the award ceremony of Civic Award
- participating in the meeting of the government’s thematic working group responsible for child rights
- participation at the 13th European Forum on the rights of the child through Eurochild
- Communication, sharing their thoughts on:
- articles published on yelon.hu
- operating an Instagram account: @gyermekjogi_kovetek
How did we work with the ambassadors?
The ambassador team has joint meetings every two weeks, focusing on team building and knowledge transfer. We had 18 meetings in 2020 (online and offline). Other than that, we have a project-based cooperation with the children. Every project starts with a call which the ambassadors can apply to. Children participated in all the projects mentioned above. The project team worked separately in these and had separate meetings as well. In 2020 we had approximately 50 meetings with the children.
It is the mentors who work directly with the ambassador group and the child volunteers. In 2020 three, from September two mentors supported their work. The mentors plan the purpose, course, and programme of the joint meetings, attempting to adapt the purpose as much as possible to the preferences and interests of the ambassadors.
They are responsible for the well-being, safe environment, and support of the children. The other colleagues at the Foundation work with the children occasionally, related to a project or by sharing information in meetings. We follow our Child Safeguarding Policy, when working with the children, paying special attention to their safety.
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