Basically we could not have peace, or an atmosphere in which peace could grow, unless we recognized the rights of individual human beings...their importance, their dignity...and agreed that was the basic thing that had to be accepted throughout the
world.
On October 19, 2008, IICRD, Relief International, UNICEF and Save the Children released the Unity Circle Project Report in Amman, Jordan.
Opening address by Angelita Caredda, Country Director for Relief International - Schools Online in Amman, Jordan:
Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Thank you for being with us today to celebrate the launch of the Unity Circle Report.
I’d like to tell you what this Project has meant for us, a medium size organisation that aims to deliver quality programmes.
Working on the Unity Circle Project has reminded us the importance of being role models and helping others to be role models. One of the fathers said something very true. He said that “Children learn 90% of their values by practicing them, and only 10% by hearing what to do” and then complained “I do not have an opportunity to be a role model here...” Through the Unity Circle Project and the other programmes Relief International conducts in Jordan and globally, we aim to support parents regaining their role. One of the recommendations of the report is to involve children and parents in every step of the project. Relief International, as most of the agencies working in Jordan on the Iraqi issue, works in close collaboration with those that are generally called “the beneficiaries”. As many of you, I don’t like this term, I find it patronising and demeaning. Today we have in this room the proof that when given the opportunity “beneficiaries” become agents of positive change. And it is important not to stop at the level of parents. One of the themes of the report is that children and youth are agents. They recognise themselves as such and deserve to be treated as such and helped to grow stronger.
But working on the Unity Circle Project has also meant allowing our staff to practice what the Do No Harm principle means. I perfectly agree with what Martha says in the report: agencies work “under pressure to deliver large-scale programming within tight timelines... sometimes act without sufficiently understanding ... challenges ... experienced by the children ... or the practical implications of remedies they seek to apply”. And, unfortunately, the Do no Harm principle sometimes becomes a box to tick in a checklist. If we lose that, if we are not able to be the role model for our own staff, we lose the deepest sense of our work.
The Unity Circle Project has shown us what happens when the academia and the practitioners work together, when serious research informs practice and the two are given the possibility to learn from each other.
I want to thank our partners, the IICRD and Save the Children for working as a team also when under the big pressure just mentioned. I’d like to thank UNICEF, for understanding and investing in this partnership and giving us the possibility to work together. I want to thank our staff for growing everyday into inspiring role models. And most of all I want to thank the children and parents who participated in the project, for opening up their lives to us.