Name of the organization: Network for Children’s Rights
Website: https://migratorybirds.gr
Brief description of the organization
“Network for Children’s Rights” (The Network) is a non-profit organization whose aim is to safeguard the rights of children as set out by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). The Network’s members are people who respect human rights, especially those of children, and who are willing to take action to uphold and promote them. Together we form a network built on solidarity and empowered with knowledge and culture, enabling us to improve the quality of life of children and offer them the pleasure and feeling of achievement that comes as a result of team effort and group initiative. Their mission is to serve the best interests of the child. Their vision is a world in which all children grow up healthy and happy, their opinion is heard and their rights are respected. The Network, therefore, reaches out to all children, regardless of ethnic origin, race, gender, religion or language, through specialized educational programmes, creative groups and extra-curricular activities. It also provides psychosocial and legal support. Furthermore, the Network undertakes initiatives and interventions whose purpose is to promote, raise awareness of, and show active respect for the rights of children. Some of these rights are still unfamiliar to many people.
Problem addressed by the good practice
Fear of migrants and refugees to be misrepresented to the media
Target groups
Young migrants, refugees and natives
Summary of the good practice
“Migratory Birds” newspaper is the result of the teamwork of Young Journalists, a team consisting of teenage and young migrants, refugees and Greeks. The newspaper is multilingual and features articles in Arabic, English, Farsi, Greek and Urdu. It is distributed every two months, free of charge, as a supplement to “EfSyn” (Newspaper of the Editors), a Greek daily newspaper. The idea for this project was born by the hesitation of people living in refugee camps, to talk to journalists, as they believed that their stories would not be presented as it should. For that reason 15 Afghan teenage girls and a Greek young woman decided to become journalists themselves and be the voices of the refugee population. Since then, the group evolved and is constantly being enriched with a lot of new members from different backgrounds, nationalities and languages. Three years after the first issue of the newspaper was released, the team launched the website of “Migratory Birds”.
Evaluation
The initiative has succeeded in bringing together youngsters of different origins, to cooperate in a multilingual journalistic edition. After the course of the years, it has achieved to make the voices of displaced youth louder, to increase media literacy among those involved and to advocate for young people arriving in Greek communities.
Recommendations
A newspaper created by young persons with an affinity for writing is both an asset to local political life and a procedure of experiential learning. Localities where groups lack expressive outlets will benefit from a medium to make their voices heard in terms of cohesion.
Resources
Information about the “Migratory Birds” newspaper can be found on newspaper’s website