Announcing STARS 2011 Impact Award Recipients
STARS will reward the following organisations for excellence in the areas of children’s health, education and protection. This year STARS has also selected a Rising Star from each region.
The recipients for Africa / Middle East are:
Health Recipient: Bwindi Community Hospital – Uganda
Bwindi Community Hospital was established as a small health centre in 2003 to tackle the lack of healthcare provision and reduce the prevalence of illnesses in this inaccessible region. It became a fully operational hospital in 2009 and as the only hospital in the region provides care principally to women and children.
The hospital implements a wide variety of programmes including child health, community health, HIV/AIDS and sexual reproductive health. It also runs programmes in schools and communities to raise awareness of sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS, environment health and sanitation, epidemics and disaster prevention, immunisations and nutrition. Counselling is also offered to adolescents and those diagnosed with HIV.
Education: arepp:Theatre for Life – South Africa
The AREPP:Theatre for Life Trust is an applied theatre organisation which has been operating nationally in South Africa since 1987. AREPP:Theatre for Life creates high quality applied theatre productions and travel to schools nationwide. Performed in the real-life context and in the local language of the audience, the productions have two aspects: the performance of a thirty minute play; followed by a thirty minute problem-solving discussion with the audience.
Using a rights-based approach each show is age-appropriately crafted to highlight and foster thought and debate around the issues of identity, rights, relationships, discrimination, gender equality, homosexuality, pregnancy, peer pressure, sex, substance use, HIV/AIDS and STIs, violence, and physical and emotional abuse.
Protection: The Wema Centre – Kenya
The Wema Centre (Well Being Centre in Kiswahili) provides comprehensive care for street children, especially girls, and educational opportunities for orphans and vulnerable children from the Coast and Central Provinces, in Mombasa, Kisauni and Thika districts. Wema provides shelter, clothing, food, healthcare, psychosocial support and education to children. Where possible it seeks to reunite street children with their families and works with government offices across the country and village elders to monitor their progress and ensure effective reintegration. Moreover, Wema works at a political level to increase awareness and understanding of the issue.
The recipients for Asia / Pacific are:
Health: Restless Development Nepal – Nepal
Restless Development Nepal is a youth led development agency that works in the poorest and most marginalised districts of Nepal to raise the awareness of children and young people on health issues such as HIV, hygiene and sanitation. Working in collaboration with other NGOs, its programmes are delivered in schools and the wider community by international and national volunteers, who offer peer-led interactive development activities. These volunteers promote the formation of youth clubs, to widen the impact of the programmes and help develop young people’s life skills. Restless Development Nepal also works alongside local communities to build hygiene and sanitation infrastructure, and advocates at a national level for the health and participation rights of young people.
Education: Centre for Services and Information on Disability (CSID) – Bangladesh
Centre for Services and Information on Disability (CSID) fights for the inclusion of disabled people in society and promotes their equal rights. CSID targets its programmes at the most vulnerable children within this marginalised group, such as those living on the streets in slums and in rural areas, as well as those with severe degrees of disability and/or with no access to education and recreation activities.
To overcome social exclusion and discrimination, CSID works closely with the school authorities, local government, community and businesses to provide access to health and rehabilitation services, education, recreation, vocational training and decent employment. CSID also aims to influence national policy and legislation so that it is more reflective and representative of the rights of disabled people and children.
Protection: Nepal GoodWeave Foundation – Nepal
GoodWeave Nepal offers an exciting model which leads to better practice within the industry, by using a holistic approach that tackles both the prevention and rehabilitation of child labour in the carpet industry. Participating companies who abide to its strict no-child-labour guidelines are issued with a unique, traceable certification label for their carpets, and are inspected through regular and thorough monitoring. GoodWeave Nepal also rescues child weavers from non compliant factories and offers them rehabilitation into the wider community through education, vocational training and eventual job placements. Child labour prevention programmes complete its approach, with a focus on education and health of carpet workers, their children and family members.
One organisation from each region was also chosen as a Rising STAR due to the work they are already doing, and the potential they have shown, in providing excellenct services for children in the areas of health, education and protection.
Africa / Middle-East Rising STAR: Stepping Stones Nigeria Child Empowerment Foundation – Nigeria
Stepping Stones Nigeria offers a drop-in facility for children aged 5-18 who have been branded as witches and abused, and provides them with food, clothing, healthcare, counselling, non-formal education, and vocational training. It also monitors child rights and reports violations to the police, and offers family tracing services, as well as financial assistance and training in income generation to reunited families.
Stepping Stones’ work also includes raising awareness of these issues within the community. It continually engages traditional rulers, government departments, the police and the judiciary through various means, and monitors the implementation of the Child Rights Act.
Asia / Pacific Rising STAR: Ba Futuru – Timor Leste
Ba Futuru’s work seeks to advance the rights of children by changing accepted norms about violence. Its innovative approach to these challenges is founded on the principles of mutual learning, capacity development, artistic self-expression and human rights-based programming.
Ba Futuru facilitate the psychosocial recovery of the conflict-affected through its Transformative Arts and Human Rights Education (TAHRE) workshops, teaching children about their own rights, the rights of others, and how to reduce violence in their everyday lives. They also develop the knowledge, skills and values of community leaders and care-givers through the Child Protection and Positive Discipline training curriculum, increasing their capacity and understanding of child protection issues.
The STARS Impact Awards
STARS offers Impact Awards to charities in Africa-Middle East and Asia-Pacific working with children in the areas of Health, Education, Protection and WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene).