The March 21 Foundation for Child Rights was established in 2012 in Tripoli. It is one of the first organizations working on children’s rights at the national level. It works to combat violence against children, through campaigns advocating for childhood issues and guaranteeing children’s rights guaranteed by Libyan law.
The Foundation also works on involving children in awareness-raising educational programs and activities targeting children and service providers such as social workers and psychological counsellors in schools, as well as officials of the legislative and executive authorities concerned with childhood.
Through Linatawaan project, the March 21 Foundation was able to work on the "Hemaya" initiative, which targeted 600 students in the schools of the Abu Salim municipality in Tripoli, and 40 social workers and psychological counsellors working in these schools.
The March 21 Foundation noticed an increase in the number of violent cases among students and the effects of this violence on their mental health and educational achievement. The Foundation worked through the "Hemaya" initiative to spread awareness among students of their rights in schools and to emphasize the important role played by social workers and psychological counsellors.
Hemaya aimed to:
- spread awareness among students about their rights and resorting to the social worker and psychological counsellor when exposed to any harm in the school.
- raise the efficiency of the professional performance of both the social worker and the psychological counsellor in the targeted schools for cases of violence among students by appropriate methods through safe and early detection that allows determining their nature.
- establish a protection mechanism to limit the spread of violence within educational institutions.
- enhance the importance of respecting the visions of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the legal and judicial protection of children's rights in educational institutions.
