Building effective advocacy mechanisms to better protect the rights of most vulnerable children with severe disabilities and life-limiting conditions in Belarus
About of project:
Period: 02.11.2020 – 01.11.2023 (36 months)
Budget: €664 839, EU contribution: €604 839
Implementing agency: The Belarusian Children’s Hospice
Partners: A UK-based charity HealthProm, the Mahiliou branch of the Belarusian Children’s Fund, the association of parents with prematurely born children RANO and and Est’ Delo NGO that participates in the project as HealthProm consultants.
Location: all regions of Belarus
Description
The project aims to protect and support the needs of one of the most vulnerable groups in Belarusian society - children with severe disabilities and diseases that limit life expectancy.Goals and objectives: The project directly contributes to the achievement of the “Promotion and realisation of Fundamental Rights in Belarus and building of capacity of Human Rights Defenders” by nurturing the development of new Human Rights Defenders - both individuals and civil society organisations (CSOs) - to promote the rights of children with severe disabilities (CWSD) and life-limiting conditions (LLC). The project will not only expand available support to families through advocating for their rights and entitlements, but it will also empower individual parents, parent-led organisations and other CSOs to lead advocacy activities themselves and develop their capacity to effectively defend the rights of these children on their own and to create a national monitoring system that could establish reporting mechanisms to alert relevant authorities in cases of rights violations and injustice.
Intermediate results: All five project partners made a very good progress in moving towards achieving projects’ results despite all the difficult external circumstances during the last two years:
- All local partners successfully prepared and launched their specific regional elements of the model of community-based advocacy and support for children with severe disabilities and life-limiting conditions (CWSD/LLC) in Belarus. Belarusian Children’s Hospice (BCH) provides support and advice to CWSD and LLC and their families, this support includes the provision of face-to-face, online and telephone consultations and legal advice from BCH regional advocates and legal advisor. RANO team provides support to new families of premature children through home visits, consultations and individual support and training. Through their viber-chats “RANO online” they also provided online and remote support and information on such issues as early years care, development, and rehabilitation. Est’ Delo team is developing a national monitoring system of the needs and rights of CWSD and LLC living in residential institutions. Belarusian Children’s Fund (BCF) focused their work on identification of active parents with CWSD and LLC in Mahiliou city and 20 districts of Mahiliou region and on increasing their engagement and empowerment as advocates for the rights of their children
- Much work has been done by HealthProm to assess and build the capacity of four local partner civil society organisations to enable them to become stronger and more effective in protecting the rights of CWD and CWLLC and their families across all regions of Belarus. Having built strong and independent local organisations, we are planning to start a coalition of CSOs for joint work in the interests of CWSD and LLC, especially those living in residential institutions.
Contacts: Maria Barinova, Project manager, tel.: +375256027875, e-mail: m_barinova.86@mail.ru;
Veronika Lebedeva, PR manager, tel.: +375297952979, e-mail: pr@hospice.by
Links: www.hospice.by, www.healthprom.org
HealthProm Director of Operations Travels to Belarus for First Project Visit in Two Years - https://www.healthprom.org/articles/healthprom-director-of-operations-attends-belarus-for-first-proj...
