Building relationships
Plan believes that building a world fit for children can be successful only if children know and understand their fundamental rights, if their views and aspirations are acknowledged and if they are allowed to participate in their own development. If not, the basic causes of poverty will continue to another generation.
By sharing our experiences, enabling meaningful contact between different peoples, encouraging learning across communities and nations, we build a network of committed individuals, all working with and on behalf of children.
We nurture relationships by promoting communication and mutual understanding at different levels.
CASE STUDY
In a small town in northwest Haiti, children and parents are learning new ways to relate to each other, thanks to a half-hour radio programme supported by Plan.Our Own Voice, broadcast through Radio Gama every Sunday afternoon in Fort Liberte', is devised, produced and aired by 25 boys and girls.
They tell news and stories, play songs and recite poems that touch on the issues important to them. The youths receive training in radio broadcast from Radio Netherlands Training Centre, and in journalism techniques from the Panos Institute.
The radio programme has strengthened community relations, built mutual respect and tolerance and helped to raise awareness about issues, not just among listeners, but among the journalists themesleves.
'The training changed my life,'says 17 year old Dominique, one of the young journalists involved in the programme.
'Before, when I saw a street child, I would feel nothing. But now I know they have no parents to educate them or to raise them. Now I understand. I care. I feel a certain responsability for that child. And perhaps I can help that child in a small way'.
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