by Malaika Kirkwood, Communications VolunteerBuilding Cities for ChildrenThis year we celebrate 3 decades of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Ratified in 1989, the UNCRC was a milestone in human history and development-- establishing the first internationally recognized, legally binding statement on child rights. Now, thirty years after its inception, the …
by Julia Everett, Development InternAugust 7th 2019 marks national Play Day in the UK. This year’s theme, ‘Play Builds Children’, highlight the benefits of play for children's development. Protecting and promoting the right to play, given its importance in childhood and growth, is something which we at Cities for Children put at the centre of …
In Summer 2018, we organised our “Hansti Basti” or “Happy Hoods,” programme in collaboration with Pehli Kiran School System and the Community Support Programme at Bahria University in Islamabad. The program was designed to ensure that over the course of six weeks, Pehli Kiran students worked with volunteer mentors to build social emotional skills and …
As part of our "Right to Play" strand of work, on 21st April 2018 we supported a special Sports Day event for over 400 children and parents from the urban slums of Islamabad. These are communities served by our partner, the Pehli Kiran School System, a network of open-air, non-formal schools in settlements across the …
By Jetske van DijkLooking back, 2017 marked a milestone in the world of child rights. The United Nations General Comment No. 21 on Children in Street Situations was published in June marking an important step towards protecting street-connected children. While children are recognised as rights holders under the Convention of the Rights of the Child …
By Jetske van DijkOn 9th November 2017, the Cities for Children team attended the Consortium for Street Children (CSC) Annual Research Conference, I BEND BUT I DON’T BREAK: Exploring Street-Connected Children’s Resilience.The day involved panel discussions and presentations of academic research, as well as hands-on workshops where practitioners shared their experiences of working with children …
Adapted from post on team member's personal blog, "The Write Thing" and refers to incidents from December 2016.The pilot phase for CfC has, of course, focused on teacher capacity building with our partners Meditrina and the Pehli Kiran School system. We're going to follow up and do many new, fun things with the PK schools.Now, we're looking to create a …
After our needs assessment, we really had to sift through the themes that we were going to work on with the PKSS teachers, while tapping the sectoral expertise of mental health professionals at Meditrina. To start with, we picked up two related sub-topics - learning and behavioural difficulties. While at this stage it is not fair …
It's official. We have quietly launched our pilot psychosocial support programme, after months of research, consultation - and negotiation.It's hard to find support for something that isn't entirely recognized as a priority. In Pakistan, the "mental health gap" or, as our doctor friends call it, the MH-gap, is not something that gets a lot of …