Over the last four years, Ba Futuru has led various types of child protection and peace building projects as part of our overarching Transformative Arts and Human Rights Education (TAHRE) Program. Ba Futuru has partnered with UNICEF and the Ministry of Social Solidarity to improve the child protection skills of NGO and government service providers, as well as the skills of community leaders and Child Protection Focal Points in IDP camps, transitional shelters and communities. Ba Futuru has also partnered with the Ministry of Education in Lautem and Bobonaro Districts in order to provide primary school teachers with positive discipline, child rights, child protection, human rights and peace building education through teacher training seminars.
Through this work, Ba Futuru staff have become increasingly aware that there is a widespread lack of understanding of how to identify child protection issues, what to do about issues once they are indentified, the negative impacts of the use of violence with children and ideas and strategies for non-violent and positive discipline methods. Additionally, they have identified the prevalence of the misperception that without the use of physical punishment, discipline is not possible. Building off of this prior experience, Ba Futuru has begun to hold participatory discussions with stakeholders and partners on the design of the “Strengthening Peace in the Lives of Children- Stopping the Violence” project with representatives from communities, UNICEF, potential partner organizations and relevant government agencies.
The Strengthening Peace in the Lives of Children- Stopping the Violence Project supports the objectives of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (which has been ratified by the government of Timor-Leste) by strengthening the capacity of local government officials – teachers, school administration and Child Protection District Based Officers (CPOs) from the Ministry of Social Solidarity (MSS) as well as parents, school directors, and children. Such capacity building will improve their abilities to promote the rights of children, while also assisting in the development of child rights and child protection mechanisms in schools and communities at the grassroots level.
