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(ANS – Geneva) –The International Institute of Mary Help of Christians (IIMA) and the International Voluntary Service Organisation for Education, Woman and Development (VIDES) have organised between 11 and 24 September a project “The right to a high quality  education for native children,” aimed at those educators working in the native areas of Venezuela, Mexico, Costa Rica and Panamà.

María Antonieta Amazonas and María Isabel Eguíllor from Venezuela; Marìa del Carmen Duràn from Panamà; Edith Reyes and Maria Concepcion Villagran from Mexico; and Ivania Villalobos from Costa Rica, are the 6 teaching staff who will presenting the training course on the right kind of education in the multicultural contexts in which IIMA and VIDES are involved.

The aim of the project is to help prepare educators to appreciate the native cultures in which they may find themselves and to go beyond a simple integration of the minority groups and to build a society which really is multicultural. This implies re-thinking the way of teaching,  so as not simply to offer bilingual lessons in primary schools but to make those in schools intended for non-natives to establish a culture which respects differences.

There are various stages in the project which is intended to have meetings in some very important places such as the Palais des Nations, Seat of the Council for Human Rights, and Wilson Palace, the Seat of the Committee for Children’s Rights.

There will be participation in the 15th Session of the Council of Human Rights of the  United Nations; a parallel meeting to the 15th session of the Council of Human Rights  on the specific topic of the project; a training course on the way the United Nations Council for the Defence of Human Rights operates  with particular attention to issues connected with the promotion of the  right to education; participation in the 55th Session of the Committee for Children’s Rights; a meeting with representatives of Office of the High Commission for Human Rights and with representatives of other NGO also present in Geneva; and a meeting with Government representatives from the countries from which the teachers come.

The organisers hope that through this project a boost will be given to the “transversality” of native cultures in the countries involved, a high quality contribution will be made to  the formation of educators and of experts in the rights of native peoples, and the good practice of IIMA and VIDES International in this area will be shared.

Published 08/09/2010