Dear Friends,
This fall, Equity for Children is paying special attention to programs, projects, individuals, NGO’s and institutions that are doing work related to children, youth and participatory arts and media. We are happy to present four special projects that were carried out over the past summer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, by graduate students from the International Affairs program at the New School University.
Nearly 50 children and youth from different favela communities in Rio de Janeiro participated in these projects that introduced video, photography, blogging and multimedia skills to the children. In addition to learning valuable technical skills the children and youth also learned about children’s rights and human rights, and explored their own lives and communities from a new perspective.
Projects such as these give children and youth unique opportunities to learn new, valuable skills, to gain more self confidence, to act as citizen journalists in their communities and to examine their surroundings with a new set of tools. Through these types of projects, programs and initiatives, children become agents of change in their own communities and can be an active part of improving the societies they live in.
The children and youth in Rio de Janeiro are very much aware of the image that is portrayed in the mainstream media about favelas, and were excited and eager to demonstrate a different side of their lives through music, photography and video. Through these projects, the children were able to show that their lives are about much more than just violence, poverty and insecurity. The videos, photos and music that the children produced demonstrate that life in the favelas is also about joy, play, family and love – aspects of lives of the favela residents that are often overlooked in the mainstream media.
I hope you enjoy the videos, images and articles provided in our site, and I invite you to keep visiting our web site for more news and information about various topics related to child rights, child poverty and social policy.
Sincerely,
Alberto Minujin
Director
