Citizenship Project with a Human Rights-based Approach in Venezuela

FundaciónPresencia (Presencia Foundation) in Colombia, Idaho Human Rights EducationCenter (IHREC) in United States and Civitas Venezuela, carried out a cooperation mission jointly with the city of Sucre in Venezuela during the first semester of 2012, with the objective of strengthening the social fabric, the dialogue with local government and the active, conscious and efficient participation of students and teachers in public matters of Sucre.

The three participating institutions belong to the network of educators Civitas, led by the Center for Civic Education, (NGO from United States – www.civiced.org), and have successfully implemented the program Citizenship Project. This program aims to prepare teachers to train their students to develop public policy projects. This methodology, along with other civic and citizenship education programs of the Center for Civic Education, have contributed to creating the network of organizations CIVITAS, which exchange information and experiences on projects, policies and initiatives in the field of education for democratic citizenship.

During the mission, a 3-day training workshop aimed at teachers was conducted. Twenty multiplier educators of Civitas Venezuela and educational supervisors of the Department of Education of Sucre participated in this workshop. The objective of this training opportunity was to provide participants with methodological and conceptual content of the Citizenship Project with a Human Rights-based approach. The workshop was led by Dan Prinzing, Executive Director of the Idaho Human Rights Education Center (IHREC), and Susana Restrpo, Executive Director of Fundación Presencia.

The Department of Education of Sucre selected 27 schools (focusing on primary education) in the city of Petare to participate in this project. More than 70 teachers participated in 4 workshops that trained in the methodology of Citizenship Project with a Human Rights-based approach. These workshops were conducted both by trained persons and by the trainers from the first workshop.

Students from the 27 participating primary schools of Petare presented 35 Citizenship Projects with an emphasis on Human Rights, in the framework of a festival that was celebrated in May 2012 in the facilities of the Department of Education of Sucre. During this festival, the six best projects were selected. A total of 1,300 students participated in the project. Teachers, parents, school principals and Ms. Susana Restrepo of Fundación Presencia were also present.

This cooperation mission installed capacities in multipliers of Civitas Venezuela, educational supervisors of the Department of Education of Sucre, and teachers regarding the conceptrual and methodological management of the program Citizenship Project with a Human Rights-based approach. School staff of the 22 municipal schools, considering a total of 650 members of the educational community, and more than 1,300 children and young people were sensitized about the importance of human rights, and their function in the exercise of citizenship participation.

Finally, and as a result of this mission, an agreement was signed by Civitas Venezuela and Sucre to continue with the implementation of Citizenship Project in Petare.

www.civitasvenezuela.org

idaho-humanrights.org

www.fundacionpresencia.com.co