Child Rights Information and Documentation Centre

CRIDOC is an initiative that seeks to provide access to information on youth/child rights or related issues through documentation, research, website and/or ICT. Main focus is: research and documentation, media mobilisation and NGO networking, child participation and empowerment.
Overall Goal
The overall goal of the Child Rights Information and Documentation Centre (CRIDOC) is:
To help redress child rights violations and create an environment, through child participation and empowerment. This will be achieved throughcreating access to information on child rights and/or related issues by establishment of information centres (including telecentres) for the enrichment of inconvenienced user communities in both rural and urban areas, among other things.
Objective of the Centre
To achieve the above goal the Centre has the following objectives:
1.     To be a single point of information resource on matters related to child rights;
2.     To initiate research into aspects of child rights;
1.     To supplement formal and informal education: i.e. to empower children by providing them with access, through the activities of the Information Centre, to air their voices, in line with the goal of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) of building a World Fit for Children;
3.     To use information technology for greater interaction among the media, other stakeholders and the children themselves.
4.     To be an activity area for children where they can learn, participate in recreational activities and form friendships with others;
5.     To forge alliances with similar institutions locally and internationally, and develop a sharing programme that would benefit children;
6.     To develop a network of like-minded institutions, centres, organizations and individuals in Malawi who can then drive changes in society and in the government;
7.     To educate the media about child rights and the need to priorities their news coverage on issues affecting children;
8.     To make awards for any achievement in any field relevant to the aims and objectives of the Centre;
 
Background
The Child Rights Information and Documentation Centre (CRIDOC) is a non-profit making professional organisation, primarily concerned with creating access to information on child rights or related issues through research, documentation, ICT, education, advocacy, networking and any other means as may be deemed appropriate from time to time. The Centre was founded as a documentation and ICT project on child rights issues in 2003 by a Malawian media intern, who was at the time working as a voluntary editor for the Child Labour News Service (CLNS), an on-line project run by Global March Against Child Labour in New Delhi, India. Having identified the existing gaps as regards information documentation and dissemination on child rights issues for advocacy, the initiative is hence seeking to establish a reliable hub of information resources on matters related to youth and child rights.
CRIDOC, which is governed by the Board of Trustees, was duly registered as a legally operating Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) in Malawi on 31 July 2006 under the Trustees Incorporation Act of 1962.
The NGO, which is mostly run by young volunteers, is also registered under National Youth Council of Malawi (NYCOM). The centre is a member of the Council for Non-Governmental Organisations in Malawi (CONGOMA).
It is affiliated to a number of key human rights networks and forums, both at national and international levels, where it has significantly contributed its expertise. One of such networks at local level is the Human Rights Consultative Committee (HRCC), a grouping of more than 80 key human rights organisations in Malawi. Other forums include the Malawi Network against Child Trafficking (M-NACT); the child labour network; and the Civil Society Coalition for Quality Basic Education (CSCQBE).
At international level, the Centre is affiliated to the Child Rights Information Network (CRIN); and the Child Rights East and Southern Africa Regional E-Network (CRES@RN), a membership based project of the Legal Aid Research and Policy Foundation headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya.
Core Programmes and Activities
The five core thematic programme areas which CRIDOC has so far used to implement a number of its activities include:
1.     Documentation/Refurbishment of the Resource Centre
2.     Research and Monitoring
3.     Training, Capacity Building and Networking
4.     On-line Campaigns
5.     Media Advocacy and IEC Strategies
(i) Documentation/Refurbishment of Resource Centre:
CRIDOC has received donations of books and other materials from the Bishop Mackenzie International High School; the UK-based Child Rights Information Network (CRIN), the National AIDS Commission (NAC), among many others. As an institutional member of the National Library Service (NLS), it has also received a considerable amount of educational resources specifically for children.
In order to achieve some of its core goals, which is to document and create access to information on issues pertaining to children/youth and related issues, CRIDOC has put in place a resource centre/library that provides such information to various stakeholders.
In particular, the resource centre is also being accessed by pupils/students from various schools within Lilongwe who are registered with the centre through their child rights clubs.
Documentation does not only include gathering of information on child rights related issues, but it also focuses on various means of documenting the resources in a systematic and accessible manner. We manage all available information resources gathered by a team of dedicated researchers (most of whom comprise volunteer college students/interns).
Thus documentation is done through:
      i.        Publications (Reports, papers, etc).
     ii.        Computer database systems (using programmes like HURIDOCS, etc)
    iii.        On-line (website) databases
    iv.        Library cataloguing of books, journals, etc
     v.        Through multi-media models available.
    vi.        Various other means, as determined from time to time.
(ii) Monitoring and Research:
CRIDOC shall, as per its strategic plan document for 2005-2010, carry out more research activities on critical issues at community level that affect rights of a child.
Research basically forms the core activity of the whole project. It defines the organisation. Without research documentation would not make more sense. CRIDOC coordinates with various institutions and child focused NGOs in initiating research projects. We also put together all other research findings that have already been carried out in the past by other researchers, institutions, etc and make follow-up research projects wherever necessary.
As an organisation established with the aim of documenting child rights related issues, it shall implement projects that will monitor various aspects of child rights situations in Malawi, such as the following:
·         Children's Budget Monitoring;
·         Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) Monitoring; and
·         Children's Media monitoring
Besides co-facilitating a consultative needs assessment workshop with media in June 2008 on children’s media monitoring with support from Plan Malawi, CRIDOC also voluntarily participated in the budget monitoring exercise earlier in the same year for primary schools within the Lilongwe Urban which was coordinated by LIDEN, in collaboration with the Civil Society Coalition for Quality Basic Education (CSCQBE) to which the CRIDOC is currently an institutional member.
It was also among the six NGOs in Malawi that participated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) Monitoring exercise, vis-à-vis data collection (research) and compilation of the 2008 Alternative/Shadow Report.
The Centre also conducted a small survey in schools within Lilongwe District to established levels of youth participation in the “16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence 2007.”
(iii) Training, Capacity Building and Networking:
CRIDOC believes in the principle of networking. The organisation believes that there can never be a meaningful development without a meaningful information and skills exchange mechanism. That is why CRIDOC facilitates workshops, seminars and training for its partners, and bring various stakeholders together to share experiences on issues affecting them and children.
In 2008, CRIDOC facilitated a number of workshops and other capacity building initiatives for its partners. For instance, the centre facilitated a training workshop on “Rights-Based Approach (RBA) to HIV/AIDS Programming” for the National Association of People with HIV/AIDS in Malawi (NAPHAM) support groups, which took place in Mponela, from 12th to 18th April 2008.
CRIDOC also facilitated a series of workshops in May 2008 for the Young Advocates for the Advancement of ICT-Related Development (Y.A.A.ICT-D) on “Building Capacities within Y.A.A.ICT-D Structures/Partners to Provide Spaces for Rural Masses on National Issues.” The workshops took place in Mchinji, Kasungu and Dowa, respectively.
(iv) On-line Campaigns:
CRIDOC has identified the use of the website as one of the contemporary means of advocacy and information sharing in the modern age. The website is aimed at keeping the Malawian populace abreast with the current trends in child/youth development globally. The website address is www.cridoc.net
(v) Media Advocacy and IEC Strategies/Programmes:
This year, CRIDOC has signed a Memmorundum of Understanding (MOU) with the National Youth Council of Malawi (NYCOM) to ducument a two-year project which the council is implementing targeting young people who scavenge around the two major dumping sites in Blantyre and Lilongwe. CRIDOC will document the issues through production of radio and TV programmes which are aired on MBC Radio 1 and TVM respectively, as well as production of news features for print media published both locally and beyond. 
CRIDOC also facilitated a workshop on 5th December 2008 for an IEC Taskforce team, to develop key IEC messages as part of an overall IEC strategy development process for a child labour project which is being implemented by Centre for Youth and Children’s Affairs (CEYCA), in partnership with Malawi Congress of Trade Union (MCTU).
The centre also served on the Media and Publicity Sub-Committee of the National Task Force that organised the Day of the African Child (16 June 2008).
CRIDOC