CWS welcomes and supports participation of Haitian partner in key Central America and Caribbean meeting to stop Violence against Children
11/29/2011
With CWS support and encouragement from CWS partners in Latin America, Jean Salomón, president of CWS-accompanied Haitian network ASR (Down with Restavek Network) and lawyer Nadine François, the network’s advocacy focal point, are ready to travel this week to neighbouring Dominican Republic where they will bring Haitian voices, expertise and perspectives to a very important regional meeting that will raise awareness on the need to prevent and respond to violence against children.
As part of their time in Santo Domingo, Jean and Nadine, who is also the founder and director of one of ASR´s member organizations, will spend a day visiting CWS-supported Proyecto Caminante, in Boca Chica, who works to prevent and eradicate all forms of violence against children with a focus on sex-tourism and gender-based violence. ASR is a network of 15 community-based Haitian agencies providing direct services to and advocating on behalf of thousand of at-risk children and youth, including child working as domestic servants, street children and girls at high-risk.
Growing violence against children at home, in schools and educational settings, in care and justice systems, in work settings and in the community led the United Nations to release a global report on Violence Against Children in 2006 that included 12 recommendations to governments to stop and respond to violence against children in all these settings. The important event Jean and Nadine will attend is the first Central America and Caribbean sub-regional meeting to follow-up to the UN Study on Violence Against Children. The event will be attended by some 150 high-level government, civil society and youth representatives from El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panamá, Dominican Republic, México and Cuba.
CWS supports participation of ASR representatives in this two-day event as we believe that regional debates on children issues should be enriched with Haitian voices and perspectives –most often missing- like the ones ASR and its members can share. CWS also sees participation in the event as an opportunity for ASR members to acquire new tools to become stronger advocates in their communities and access much-needed regional networking opportunities.
CWS is a member of ACT Alliance
and the American Council for Voluntary International Action (InterAction).
Recognized as one of America's Most Efficient Charities,
Church World Service has earned
an A rating from the American Institute of
Philanthropy and was named
one of the Top 100 Highly Rated Charities by GiveSpot.com.
Photos left to right:
Doug Smith, Projeto Meninos e Meninas de Rúa, Paul Jeffrey,
Rick Reinhard, Martha Farmelo
