Protecting Early Childhood from Violence in Colombia is a partnership with local NGOs, daycares and schools to protect children from the devastating impact of violence.
This IICRD project is based on a partnership with the International Center of Education and Human Development (CINDE), the Children’s Observatory of the National University of Colombia in Bogota and several local communities including Chicala, Soacha in Bogata, Huila in Neiva and Commua 13 in Medellin. We are working with day cares and schools to protect young children from the devastating impact of violence.
Together with children, families, leaders, NGOs, professionals and local officials, we are creating zones of peace for more than 15,000 children and strengthening local and national child protection systems to more effectively protect children by strengthening at-risk families and communities and establishing local solutions. We are:
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Engaging local stakeholders to develop local indicators for childrenès well being and safety
- Training community leaders, day care workers, families and young people themselves
- linking with Local and National an International processes to positivly influence child protections systems throughout Colombia
This project explored diverse training and awareness raising approaches: home-to-home family visits, adolescents and youth working with pre-school students, and mothers working on service learning projects to implement training projects, as well as organizing family-focused street festivals. It also developed innovative community-based violence prevention and early intervention programs such as community monitoring committees, mothers and parents support networks, youth-led early intervention support for vulnerable young parents, and community creative expression of well being and joy as a means of reclaiming community space dominated by gang and criminal activities.
Sustaining Impact
- Inspire lasting hope and personal change in parents, children, youth, promotoras and community members through learning and transforming how they can protect Colombia’s youngest citizens
- Create peace through community development, particularly through the role of the promotoras to strengthen their skills, social capital, community esteem and networks by building trust between parents, children, youth, and government institutions
- Expand capacity building for front-line early childhood educators through the integration of the project curriculum into professional and non-formal training provided at a national scale by the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare (ICBF) and the Pastoral Service in Early Childhood of the Catholic Church
- Support the integration of training and community-based indicators into the Buen Comienzo early childhood program, including a graduate-level course on protecting young children
