As Özne Çocuk, we met with children to talk about "children's rights and advocacy" on January 26, 2023.
In this event held with the children who are members of the Provincial Child Rights Committee from various provinces of Türkiye, we discussed "child rights" with children as the main rights holders.
During the session participated by 20 children in-person and 100 children online, we first discussed the concept of advocacy. Our project experts held discussions with the children on what advocacy is, its effects, and how it should be done.
The Best Way to Learn is Through Experience!
In order for this session to leave an impression on the participating children, our experts preferred to be practitioners rather than just lecturers. During the event, various games were incorporated for enabling children to better understand the concept of advocacy.
In the session also attended by Dr. Musa Şahin, Director General of Child Services, our project experts gamified the issue of peer bullying after it was mentioned by the General Director and carried out a quick and effective activity with the children.
What Were The Rules of This Game?
Participating children were given papers. Then they were asked to crumple these papers. Afterwards, the children were asked to smooth out the paper again, but despite all the effort, it was not possible to make the paper go back to its original state.
At the end of this demonstration, it was explained to the children that these papers actually represented bullied children. Once hurt and bullied, children were unlikely to be as sound as before. Apologizing would not completely heal those wounds.
Does Every Child Have Equal Access to Rights?
Another game played during the meeting sought an answer to the question "Does every child have equal access to rights?" First, our experts rearranged the chairs in the room into 3 rows and seated each child in a certain chair. Then they placed a trash can half a meter away from the front row and asked the children to throw the paper balls they had into the can. While the children seated in the front rows were able to throw their balls into the trashcan, the children in the back rows had a hard time aiming at the trash can. Through this game, it was displayed that all children have equal rights (each child was given an equal number of paper balls), but they do not have equal access to these rights. At the same time, by assigning specific chairs to children at the beginning the experts gave the message that this unequal access was also imposed on children.
As Özne Çocuk, we will continue to gather with children to talk about advocacy and learn together.
Stay tuned for our work!
