Looking back over a few of my posts I seem to have spent most of my time trying to motivate myself to keep going. This week, however, I knew I wouldn’t need to as five of our partner organisations are visiting London. Children Unite’s partners are local organisations working directly with child domestic workers. They are: Kivulini in Tanzania, Asociación Grupo de Trabajo Redes in Peru, Defensa de los Niños International Costa Rica, the National Domestic Workers Movement in India and last but by no means least Visayan Forum Foundation in the Philippines. Jonathan and I have been meeting up with them to discuss how our two organisations could work together. It’s always inspiring to listen to everything they have achieved but one of the things that has energized me the most (and is probably what attracts me to this work) is a feeling of solidarity amongst us. Child domestic workers are an invisible group of children, working behind closed doors and the very few organisations that work with these children are pretty invisible too. I feel proud to be associated with their years and years of excellent work and excited by the future possibilities of all different kinds of partnerships between us. And funnily enough the invisibility we are fighting against is a challenge that motivates me too.
Another thing that I’ve learned this week is that small is beautiful. (I know, I know it’s the same old stuff I’m learning every week!) In my panic last week about funding I wanted to rush ahead into a big funding proposal and Jonathan had to reign me in and remind me that we are a tiny organisation and we should take things slowly but surely. So, our first project will not be a multi-country, mega buck, complex programme of activities. It will need to focus on developing a strong relationship between ourselves and our partners, making sure we’re on the right track and that we understand our different roles. Meeting our partners this week has helped me to see that small steps do get you somewhere and that the first of these small steps are the relationships we develop.
And, just for posterity I want to record a scene from last night that makes me smile.
Picture, if you will, me handing my first business card as ‘Director’ of Children Unite to the UN Special Rapporteur on Slavery at the House of Lords. Earlier in the day I had printed off a sheet of the cards and had cut them into ‘card shapes’ whilst watching ‘Dick and Dom’ a children’s TV show.
Jonathan and I attended our first event as Children Unite, at the House of Lords (or the House of the Lord of the Rings as our daughter Maya called it!!). It was a very well attended event, organised by Anti-Slavery International with most of the partner organisations present. Gulnara Shahinian, the UN Special Rapporteur spoke eloquently about domestic slavery. In turn, Aidan McQuade of Anti-Slavery International articulated the issues very well…and I managed to get the guts to ask a question!
Another thing that I’ve learned this week is that small is beautiful. (I know, I know it’s the same old stuff I’m learning every week!) In my panic last week about funding I wanted to rush ahead into a big funding proposal and Jonathan had to reign me in and remind me that we are a tiny organisation and we should take things slowly but surely. So, our first project will not be a multi-country, mega buck, complex programme of activities. It will need to focus on developing a strong relationship between ourselves and our partners, making sure we’re on the right track and that we understand our different roles. Meeting our partners this week has helped me to see that small steps do get you somewhere and that the first of these small steps are the relationships we develop.
And, just for posterity I want to record a scene from last night that makes me smile.
Picture, if you will, me handing my first business card as ‘Director’ of Children Unite to the UN Special Rapporteur on Slavery at the House of Lords. Earlier in the day I had printed off a sheet of the cards and had cut them into ‘card shapes’ whilst watching ‘Dick and Dom’ a children’s TV show.
Jonathan and I attended our first event as Children Unite, at the House of Lords (or the House of the Lord of the Rings as our daughter Maya called it!!). It was a very well attended event, organised by Anti-Slavery International with most of the partner organisations present. Gulnara Shahinian, the UN Special Rapporteur spoke eloquently about domestic slavery. In turn, Aidan McQuade of Anti-Slavery International articulated the issues very well…and I managed to get the guts to ask a question!
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