Dear Children and Respected Adults!

The first stage of the competition “In Defence of My Rights” has come to an end.

Participants have included groups of children and adults from orphanages and residential schools in Moscow, the Moscow oblast’, Volgograd, the Volgogradskaya oblast’, the Krasnodarsky region, Novy Urengoy, Noyabr’sk, Cherepovets, Ivanovo, Perm’, Yekaterinburg and elsewhere.

An expert committee has carefully studied all the applications and selected the winners.

These are:

• Volgograd’s Regional Charitable Organization “Club UNESCO: A Child’s Worth”, Volgograd.

The project: “A Children’s Ombudsman Service for the Protection of Children’s Rights”. The project is directed at the creation of a system of coordinating activities between children in care (orphans and social orphans) and ombudsmen for children’s rights. The essential aim of the project is to ensure that there is consistent work done by the Children’s Ombudsman Services for the Protection of Children’s Rights in three institutions within the region, something with would act as a functioning mechanism of continuous and effective information exchange between the children and the ombudsmen for children’s rights (both the ombudsman working in the institutions and the ombudsman for children’s rights in the Volgogradskaya oblast’).

• Orphanage ¹9, Cherepovets.

The project: “Life Vector”. By running the project, the children will construct and educational computer program called “Life Vector”, aimed at teaching the current legislation of the Russian Federation. The program will be available not only on the institution’s website, where it can be used by young people, but also distributed to any other organizations which take an interest.

• The State Sanatorium Orphanage in Perm’, Dobryanki.

The project: “Taking a Lawful Stand – ‘Know Your Rights and Live with Respect’”. The aim of the project is to distribute knowledge about the rights and freedoms which children are entitled to, and also about additional guarantees for orphanage graduates (both orphans and social orphans), but also to facilitate the exchange of expertise on rightful care in children’s homes within the Permsky region, using the efforts of both the children and the carers living in these institutions.

• The Non-Commercial Partnership: “A Family for Children” and the State Children’s Centre “Karavella”, Yekaterinburg.

The project: “A Territory of Rights”. A team of children and specialists at the institution will learn about children’s rights (including the rights of children in orphanages), compile materials to create a mini-guide, which is to include information on the mechanisms in place to protect rights, as well as information about who to turn to in the case of their infringement. Towards the project’s conclusion, a declaration will be published, containing proposals for constructing a cooperative scheme between the Children’s Ombudsman Services and both children in care and orphanage graduates.

• The Federal State Educational Institution “The E. D. Stasova Residential School of Ivanovo”, Ivanovo.

The project: “I Want To Be a Student”. For this project, specialists and children at the school have decided to put together a step-by-step algorithm of activities for any orphanage graduate who wants to continue his or her education in an institute of higher education. The algorithm will include a description of all the rights issues, which have to be known by graduates when they select, enter and study at another school of further education.

• The State Orphanage of Medvedovskaya, Krasnodarsky region.

The project: “Knowing the Law Means Protecting Your Rights”. The idea behind the project is to create a program for learning about the UN Convention on Child Rights, but on the basis of children’s fiction, national heritage, an analysis of heroic behaviour in fairy tales and animated films. Using play methods, program will allow children to acquire a command of basic rights education. The children plan to publish and spread information about the progress of the project in their own newspaper.

Congratulations to our winners – we wish you success in putting your ideas to practice!