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Description
The project is necessary because addresses the situation of children and young people with hearing and visual impairment with a high degree of discrimination. The problem identified refers to the low capacity of children and young people with visual and hearing disabilities to know and claim their rights and develop targeted actions, to combat prejudice, stereotypes and exclusionary practices in the community. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities "explicitly recognizes disability as a human rights issue and mentions the attitudes and environmental barriers that impede their full and effective participation in society". The project is implemented in Bucharest, Buzau and Ramnicu Sarat and includes 940 children and young people with visual and hearing disabilities from 7 school units. Through training activities in the field of human rights, awareness and advocacy proposed through the project, the target group will have the possibility to make their voices heard and to ask the authorities the necessary measures for their full social integration. The Position Paper document will be transmitted to the Geneva Children''s Rights Committee and members of the senate from the Human Rights Commission. 15 NGOs invited to the street event will broaden the scope of informing citizens about vulnerable people. The beneficiaries will create 50 digital stories within the project. The applicant has expertise in the field of human rights, has implemented projects for vulnerable groups with an emphasis on social inclusion and strategy development. Norsensus Mediaforum will provide expertise in volunteer management. ANBPR has expertise in projects aimed at vulnerable groups including e-Skills for e-Inclusion and the Biblionet program, through which public libraries have been equipped with digital inclusion mini-laboratories that will be used for digital stories. Starlight Petra offers expertise by sharing their own experiences and knowing from inside the target group.
Summary of project results
The project aimed to change the mentalities and attitudes of citizens in Bucharest, Buzau and Ramnicu Sarat through advocacy activities in order to promote human and children’s rights, designed to fight against stereotypes, prejudices, as well as exclusion and marginalization practices that affect children and young people with hearing and visual impairments and their families. All objectives have been met, and the proposed indicators have been successfully achieved.
27 volunteers were trained in the field of human rights, children and persons with disabilities, environmental protection and climate change and 64 children and young people with visual and hearing disabilities and didactic staff acquired a high degree of awareness of their rights and how rights can be promoted through advocacy actions within the 2 project-level training courses. These 64 children and young people organized 13 training courses in 7 special schools for 243 representatives of the target group. There were also 13 educational awareness sessions in mainstream schools attended by 522 beneficiaries which were held by the volunteers and staff and 14 workshops in order to identify barriers with the participation of 289 students with visual and hearing impairments, together with teachers and students from mainstream schools. A delegation of 16 people presented to the members of the Commission for Human Rights, Equal Opportunities, Cults and Minorities a Position Paper called Manifesto which emphasis was placed on the barriers and difficulties faced by people from special schools: insufficient special schools for children with such deficiencies and the lack of informing the population about them, about health services and access to the labor market. A study was also carried out regarding the citizens'' perception of people with disabilities. 50 children and young people were trained in the technique of creating digital stories and in the development of creative skills. As part of the Street Event activity, public campaigns were carried out with an emphasis on vulnerable groups which consisted in: a series of workshops (workshop for exchange of good practices with representatives of NGOs, workshops for informing citizens on digital stories, workshop with representatives of the relevant national authorities), the role-playing games, dissemination of materials in schools and the community. These were initially scheduled to take place in 3 cities: Bucharest, Buzău, Râmnicu Sărat, but were added to them another 4: Ploiesti, Călăraşi, Galați, Brăneşti. Regarding the organizational development activity, an online fundraising campaign and a physical event were carried out, the main theme of which was an interactive one, a joint arts and crafts workshop made together by students from special and mainstream schools. The Applicant''s annual report for the year 2021 was also translated into English.
In terms of results and effects, 93.31% of the target group has a favorable attitude regarding human rights and the rights of people with hearing and visual impairments, according to the two studies conducted on 396 young people. One of the most important results of the Street Event campaigns is the impact that the workshops and actions unfolded within had both among people with visual and auditory impairments and among typical people.
Summary of bilateral results
The collaboration with the Norsensum Mediaforum partner was very good and beneficial as the project benefited from his expertise and know-how in terms of working with volunteers and carrying out advocacy activities in the field of human rights, with an emphasis on the use of digital tools. The collaboration was realized through the training courses addressed to the volunteers, and also through the Methodology developed by the Norwegian partner which was presented during the Final Conference. The methodology proposes the realization of advocacy campaigns based on the design thinking method - a working method that involves the target group in understanding their own problems they face, identifying hypotheses, redefining problems and proposing innovative solutions that will be prototyped and tested. These activities contributed to the development of young people''s skills in terms of advocacy campaigns and the use of technologies with high potential to reach the targeted groups.