Ambassador Jernej Videtič, Head of Delegation of the EU to Guyana and Omattie Madray, Managing Director of ChildLink today signed a grant contract to implement the project titled “Child Rights Alliance”.
A release from the EU said that the grant involves the support of a maximum of $75.7 Million and will be funded from the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) 2014-2015 country allocation for Guyana.
Ambassador Videtič stated: ‘Human Rights are one of the core values of the European Union and its Member states. The European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights provides the possibility to support civil society projects in this area also in Guyana. The rights of vulnerable groups, especially children are particularly important in this regard and the ChildLinK proposal convinced us. We look forward to a successful implementation.
Madray stated according to the press release: ChildLinK’s vision is a Guyanese society where children are growing up in safe families and communities. This new initiative, the Child Rights Alliance (CRA), builds on our previous and current work more specifically on the work of the Child Advocacy Centres which were all funded by the European Union. Whilst the centres will continue to provide services to abused children, greater emphasis must be placed on prevention of abuse of children, to give more children a better chance to grow up without the trauma of abuse. The CRA will therefore build a national coalition led by the Rights of the Child Commission to work strategically with stakeholders across all regions creating higher levels of awareness of child abuse to safeguard children from all forms of abuse. ChildLinK is very pleased that the European Union has a long term commitment to creating safe families and communities for Guyanese children.
The release said that the overall objective of the project is to strengthen national collaboration for the prevention of violence and abuse against 6,000 children through improved networking, influencing policies and practices and advocacy in Regions 3, 4 and 5 by June 2018. Further, the activities foreseen under the grant will add to work done already by ChildLinK under three previous grants totalling over $86 Million which were funded from previous EIDHR allocations.
ChildLinK Inc, a local Non-Governmental Organisation, was established in year 2009 and its mandate is to work with its partners towards a Guyanese society where every child has the right to grow up in a safe and secure family and community.
