CHILD RIGHTS & YOU, SAN DIEGO

Imagine pulling out your child from school just because you are unable to find a job that pays enough to support your family.

 

Imagine your daughter could not attend school just because it has no toilets.

 

Imagine entire generations of your family being born into bonded labor, with no hope of breaking free.

 

Imagine a country. Call it India, if you will, where 10,000 Indians died from entirely preventable causes.

 

Outrageous? Yet 10,000 children die every single day in India. More than in any tsunami, flood, earthquake, famine or war. Half of India's children are deprived of their fundamental right to education every day. Two million Indian babies die each year before they celebrate their first birthday. Millions of India's children go to bed each night hungry, hopeless and angry. We as a nation, seem quite content to tolerate this violation of their constitutional rights. It is because of this reality that CRY - Child Rights and You, exists today - to amplify the voice of children.

 

CRY San Diego is a volunteer driven chapter of CRY America. We believe in creating peoples' movements to make a lasting difference to underprivileged children. We believe that each of us, as individuals and organizations, can contribute. All it takes is the belief that 'Change is possible, because I'll make it possible'. Our strength therefore lies in our supporters - the volunteers, donors and partners who have come together to change the situation of the underprivileged child.

 

Our approach is inclusive. We provide an opportunity for everyone to participate in this movement for child rights within the context of their own lives. Our development philosophy is based on a holistic focus on child rights. It's based on the belief that the delivery of these rights is inextricably linked to the situation of the child's immediate family and community they are a part of. So, to take a simplistic example, if a child needs to be able to go to school, his parents need to be able to afford to not let him work. Thus a child's ability to be educated is directly linked to the livelihood issue of his family and his community. We believe that change brought about in this manner is more sustainable and meaningful to childrens lives.

 

We do not believe in charity. Nor do we run schools, orphanages or dispensaries. CRY America supports organizations and initiatives that (a) seek to mobilize communities at the grassroots level, so that they are able to solve their problems themselves (b) work with State institutions to effect policy reform and implementation (c) seek to support and enhance the capacity and quality of grass roots initiatives.

 

We believe that children are citizens in their own right, entitled to the full spectrum of human rights. The grim reality, however, is that despite all these many small triumphs within CRY America's reach the outlook for most of India's underprivileged children will not change on a significant scale. To see a change on a significant scale, it will require that we start thinking of children, not as objects of sympathy, but as citizens with the same rights that we consider our due.

 

That we believe, really believe, that every child, regardless of birth and circumstances is truly equal. That we realize the policies and the everyday choices we make, must seek to address the root causes of children's problems not just their superficial manifestations.

Finally, we must all - as voters, parents, teachers, investors, neighbors, businesspersons, lawyers, consumers, activists, students, judges, administrators, journalists and politicians alike - overcome our apathy, cynicism and sheer inertia and reconfigure our priorities to put children first.

 

 Numbers at a glance