We believe that thinking about children only works by involving them, therefore they participate in all our programs. We involve our volunteers aged 13-17 in a variety of roles – from counselling to attitude-building – based on a tailor-made methodology. Their participation is governed by the Child Safeguarding Policy, which we review annually.
How many children worked with us in 2022?
Just like in the previous years (2020, 2021), in 2022 we worked together with approx. 35-40 children, in three capacities.
- The Ambassadors of Children’s Rights were collaborating just like our full-time colleagues in the activities of the foundation.
- A dedicated children’s advisory team has been set up to support the child-friendly justice project CLEAR-Rights.
- Occasional volunteers were involved as part of a one-to-one consultation or as part of the School Community Service.
What topics did we ask the opinions of the children working with us on?
School and education, divorce, protests, war, protection against violence, online safety, child safety in sport, child-friendly justice, communities, child protection policies were all topics where we took children’s opinions into account when creating our professional and communications materials.
Key achievements in 2022
- We helped the European Council to get to know the views of children, which makes recommendations to Member States on parental separation and care proceedings. We have held children’s consultations in Hungary, brought together and supported partners abroad to run children’s consultations there, and represented children’s views in Dublin.
- We created information materials based on the children’s views on education, protests and support for children, children’s involvement in protecting children against violence, and child-friendly interactive learning materials on children’s rights. Our Ambassadors were involved in the creation of lesson plans and briefings on children’s rights, including our materials on the NEMECSEK Program and the war in Ukraine.
- Our Children’s Rights Ambassadors team has grown from 9 to 18 people, now 12-13 year olds and people living outside Budapest joined as well. Starting from September, we worked with them in a new structure, holding face-to-face meetings every two weeks.
- We facilitated children’s participation in the CLEAR-Rights project on promoting child-friendly justice, as part of which the children’s advisory panel produced a video for the PILnet global conference.
- We set up a Children’s Advisory Board to support the NEMECSEK Sport Program.
- The children who work with us produced several videos and podcasts on violence against children and child-friendly justice.
- Our Ambassadors participated in the development of an action plan to promote child protection in the community.
- The foundation has been making a comprehensive yearly report since 2016, about significant child rights events which reflect changes in legislation and statistics. The 2021 report, which was made in 2022, is somewhat more special, because it includes the thoughts and perspectives of the Child Rights Ambassadors.
- Our child volunteer was appointed to the Eurochild Children’s Council.
- We participated in several national and international conferences, presenting at the Keeping Children Safe global conference, the Youth Conference, the CLEAR-Rights project conferences, and the Child Rights Conference of the NGO Coalition on the Rights of the Child.
- We have supported the participation of Hungarian children in international consultations and events, such as the 14th European Forum on the Rights of the Child and the UN consultation on women’s rights.
- We have carried out regular risk assessments and the way our Child Safeguarding Policy is embedded in our daily practice has helped us to ensure that our work is safe for children and adults.
How did we work with children?
- We involved children in our work in different roles.
- We have expanded the team of adults working with children.
- We have developed a new structure to involve the children who work most closely with us, the Children’s Ambassadors.
- We also worked with groups of children specifically formed for one project.
Our aim in reporting on the Children’s Participation 2022 is to provide an overview of our work together, to highlight the diverse opportunities for involving children, and to contribute to the learning of good practices and the discussion of methodological dilemmas.
Our full report can be found here.
