Human Rights Day 2020 - Children’s Rights Are Human Rights
Human Rights Day is celebrated each year on 10 December, the date on which the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in 1948. On this day the NEU reaffirms its commitment to fighting for human rights around the world – which are still denied to far too many.
To mark Human Rights Day this year, we were pleased to be invited by the National Education Union (NEU) for an International Webinar to talk about how the Foundation (SSF) is advancing human rights and the Sustainable Development Goals. The SSF works with teachers and educators to deliver projects that ensure inclusive and equitable quality education for all.
Thank you to everyone who attended.It was a truly international event to mark Human Rights Day with teachers attending from The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Malawi, the U.K, Northern Ireland and Ireland, resulting in some great ideas to progress Education For All.
The evening started with Jerry Glazier Chair and founding member of the SSF and NEU National Executive member, introduced the history of the Foundation and talked about the work of Steve Sinnott, in which his legacy lives on in the work of the Foundation.
Isata M Kamara talked about our ‘Positive Periods’ campaign which has reached over 60,000 girls in some of the world’s poorest countries, and Marie Antoinette Corr General Secretary of the Gambia Teachers Union (GTU) talked about GTU and SSF working in partnership on rural education.
Ann Beatty Chief Executive of the Steve Sinnott Foundation, explained how the Foundation and their partners have adapted this year to support safe learning during the pandemic and how everyone can do something to support Education for All children everywhere.
Some of the highlights of 2020:
• We have kept over 5,000 children learning in The Gambia through the provision of solar radios.
• Work is nearly complete on our 3rd Learning Resource Centre which is opening in The Gambia in the New year.
• We have sharing learning through online storytelling and setting up the Lifelong Learning webinar series. The partners and teachers we work with are doing amazing work across the globe, and we have been trialling ways to share some of this learning so it’s available to an ever-widening audience. The webinars are carefully selected to support teaching and learning and they may also support building business skills, creativity and wellbeing.
• Our Positive Periods project has had a positive effect on over 60,000 women and girls and we hope it will reach more girls. We are excited to tell you that in Havana they are starting another Positive Periods project with grandmothers teaching their daughters and granddaughters so they get to spend quality family time together too. The Positive Periods project is working in The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Malawi and Cuba and we have more countries waiting.
One thing that the Pandemic has illustrated to everyone is how connected we all are to each other. We do not exist in bubbles, our groups are made up of people in other groups, who are connected to more groups and so on. We have seen not just the virus spread rapidly through a country but also across the world. We are all connected across the world.
It’s the same for education too. If we are able to get access to quality education right in one country, the problems caused by lack of education in other countries are still going to affect everyone globally.
Lack of education, and therefore opportunities, is something we are passionate about changing, we believe that Education is a human right for all children, it should not matter where they were born, who they were born to or their gender, they should expect access to a quality education as that gives them choices for their future.
The Steve Sinnott Foundation is working at a grass roots level to make a change to education across the globe. We do this by working in partnership with teachers on the ground, who scope and manage each project locally, so it is fit for purpose, respects the local culture and is sustainable and where possible replicable. We work with teachers to create independence not dependency.
When we have problems in the UK people may be concerned about how we can fix our own problems, but without fixing problems globally, new challenges will be created, which affect us all equally.
What can you do to support our work?
• You can help us with Resources and research.
• You can write articles for Engage or our blog so we can share all teaching and learning practices globally.
• We would love to work more closely with International Solidarity Officers so please invite us to work with you.
• You can follow us on social media, like and comment to get our engagement levels up.
• Subscribe to our YouTube Channel
• You can share our work with any new partners who might be interested, we believe working together is winning together.
• Finally, most importantly you can ask your districts to support our work, it costs £25 for a good quality solar radio which provides lessons for at least 10 children. So, £500 would buy 20 radios and support over 200 children to access learning.
• The materials and training for a making 5 reusable period pads which last a girl up to 3 years is £3 so if you donate £10 a month that is supporting 40 girls in a year. Once a girl has learned this skill, she can manage her periods independently and with dignity and pride.
If you have any questions or comments please leave them below or email ann.beatty@stevesinnottfoundation.org.uk
The Steve Sinnott Foundation • December 14, 2020
Mike Fleetham of Thinking Classroom has written a book " Headlines: Inspiration, humour and advice for school leaders ". A collection of original ideas, advice from professionals, quotes, and tips to support and inspire all leaders. Perfect for new and established leaders working in education, especially headteachers. "Being a headteacher is like looking both ways before you cross the road, and then getting hit by an aeroplane." To Enter the Competition To win a copy of Headlines please share your inspiring education or life lesson in no more than 600 words. The winning article will also be published in our next edition of Engage. Send your words of inspiration to admin@stevesinnottfoundation.org.uk 📅 Deadline: 5th September 2025 Stuck on Ideas? Here are some questions and prompts to get you started! What’s the one lesson school didn’t teach you, but life did? Think of a moment that changed your path, what happened? What piece of advice has helped you grow the most? When did a challenge turn into an opportunity for you? What story from your life would inspire someone on the other side of the world? What’s the life lesson that unlocked your next chapter? Your words could uplift, empower and be seen by many. Let your story inspire the world! 🌍💡 Good luck and we cant wait to read all the entries!
This week our CEO Ann and Jude (SSF Ambassador) visited schools in Coventry and heard about the wonderful work that students are doing to foster peace and community connection, as part of Coventry Arts Week. We visited Lyng Hall school in the morning and met with Ms Hagan and four of the schools UNESCO ASPnet ambassadors. They told us all about their recent project. The students took their art and poetry to the 80th Anniversary symposium in Ypres and Dunkirk. They shared with us some of the poetry they had written together with the students on the field trip and some of their own poems too. They also shared their future plans for working with their local primary school on peace and community. We also had the privilege of joining Ms Hagans class where they were looking at Caliban’s tale. Here is one of the students work
For my birthday this year I had the honour to walk 60 miles (yes it was a big 0 birthday) over 3 days to support the essential work of the Steve Sinnott Foundation of which I am CEO. Education in its many forms is essential for all of us to thrive and make the most of life's opportunities. The Foundation works to ensure that as many children and adults as possible across the globe can access the human right of education. The plan was to walk with friends and supporters who I hoped would keep me smiling along the way and it felt like a good way to make use of the Foundation’s “Get Moving” campaign. Here's how my Get Moving Fundraiser went on the first day. The 13th June I started my walk in London by walking from Barnet to west Hampstead and visiting my sister at her shop at Tree of Life where I got served a nice iced coffee to keep me going.
