What is SCREAM?

SCREAM stands for:

Supporting Children’s Rights…

Each child has the right to play, to go to school, and to dream. Adults bear the responsibility, as guardians of childhood, for making that possible. The SCREAM programme offers a unique opportunity to engage a wide range of community actors and organizations in the promotion of social justice and universally recognized human and labour rights. It also reinforces the work of IPEC by developing cooperation activities at different levels, including building and strengthening partnerships with other UN agencies, governments, employers’ and workers’ organizations, NGOs and academic institutions in the worldwide movement against child labour.

through Education…

Access to basic education is a fundamental right that is denied to millions of children. Not only is poverty a cause of child labour, child labour also causes poverty. Free universal primary education is one of the main ways to break this vicious cycle, which is the aim of the second Millennium Development Goal reinforced by the Education For All Initiative led by UNESCO. Along with access to education, and in order to build a fair globalization, adults and children should be ensured quality human rights-based education. Education has a fundamental role to play in personal and social development and in promoting a strong sense of personal responsibility for the attainment of common, global goals.

The education process in the SCREAM programme equips young people with knowledge and information twinned with the tools, skills, and confidence to take action and to publicly inform members of their communities about what they have learned. The SCREAM learning process finds its foundations in the four pillars of the education approach - “learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together and learning to be” (Learning: The Treasure Within, by Jacques Delors). This learning process impacts upon the perceptions of young people and their communities and leads to changes in attitudes and behaviour. Through this process, young people will come to realise and fulfil their potential as agents of social change within their communities and to acquire a sense of “glocal citizenship” – thinking globally and acting locally.

the Arts…

Art is a powerful medium to educate and inform communities on the issue of child labour, its causes, implications and consequences. The SCREAM learning process is deeply rooted in the arts, whether visual, literary or performing, making it a particularly powerful tool for reaching young people. It combines fun and entertainment with a means to develop confidence, memory, self-discipline and self-esteem. SCREAM has been developed with young people, for young people and it empowers them to act. The SCREAM programme enables young people to express themselves in a wide range of different and creative ways and in a manner specific to their culture and traditions. In addition, the programme reaches out to the wider community and invites local artists, journalists, academics and others to play an active role in the implementation process, working through a community-based approach. Everyone can be guided to become a world citizen without losing their own roots and continuing to play an active part within their own community. Everyone has a role to play in the process of change for a better world.

and the Media

In this era of global digital communications and instantaneous information, the role of the media is crucial in any education and social mobilization programme. Young people need to understand how the media works in all its forms and how they, as an important social group, interact with it. Working with the media is becoming a necessary skill in society today. It is equally important that the media industry takes advantage of the opportunity that the SCREAM programme offers to enter the classroom and to support genuine efforts of young people to promote social justice.

Supporting Children’s Rights through Education, the Arts and the Media