According to UNICEF, human rights are the rights which are essential to live as human beings. It includes civil, cultural, economic, political, and social rights—human rights concerning the basic social and economic conditions needed to live a life of dignity and freedom.
Children, defined as people under 18 years old, have the same general human rights as adults, but they need special care and protection to safeguards their rights that adults do not. That is why besides the international conventions and treaties on human rights, we also have the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child to protect children’s rights.
After conducting more research based on our society in Hong Kong, we believe Children’s Play Rights, CPR, deserves a higher level of public awareness. The best way to do so is by educating parents and raising their awareness cooperating with inter-organizations, and by encouraging parents to spare free play time for children. At the same time, we would also want local children to appreciate what they have by sharing facts that there are a lot of children in developing countries who do not even get to play at all due to health care and war issues.
We began a flagship project named “Children’s Play Rights 遊戲權利您有SAY” in 2017 with a series of activities and events, including carnival, online event, music concert, seminar, questionnaire, and workshop which reached over 6,000 participants in the past 5 years.
In 2021, COVID-19 pandemic did not stop us from hosting community development events. We hosted a series of events for CPR, including “Make Your Own Game” online competition, guests interview, theme song process, questionnaire handout, and press conference.
Also, CPR has made a lot of publicity in our district. Our poster has successfully been released to various distributions including advertisements in public transports, for instance: MTR and Minibus. Furthermore, we promoted our flagship projects to lots of Non-Profit Government Organizations like The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups (HKFYG), The Society of Social Rehabilitation and Crime Prevention, Hong Kong (香港善導會), Tsuen Wan District Parent Teacher Association Federation etc. We believe that through those of the organizations we can spread our projects to gain more concerns.
In 2022, we are going to hold one Online Workshop and one Outing Free Play Fun Day, in April to July, to let children and parents experience different ways to let the children play. At the same time they will discover the positive impact from playing! Also, we have a series of publication materials like Facebook page, YouTube channel, and Instagram to show lots of video clips, articles related to Children’s Play Rights. We would invite different guests for sharing. We will also be doing a questionnaire for the public to compare last year’s result to evaluate if there are any changes.
Online Workshop1 (Mid April)
Unfortunately, the pandemic outbreak was back again. We have to replan the project. Since schools are all closed now, we want to promote our event through online platforms. Under the pandemic, there is a lot of free time for children. Parents may worry a lot about their studies because children are not going to schools at all in 2022. Be remembered, children do not choose to be absent from schools. We, as adults, do not provide a good learning environment to them and they are under a lot of stress now. We deeply believe that this is a great moment to raise up again the importance of Children’s Play Rights to help release their stress in such a difficult time in Hong Kong.
Despite the school stops, learning never stops!
The first event of the CPR flagship project is an online workshop. We have invited Renita Kong, Business Director of HK Teaching Aid Limited (香港親子教具網有限公司), to give a speech about her experience on SEN(Special Educational Needs) children handling. She started the company in 2014 for her son, who was diagnosed with ADHD. Throughout the years, she has designed many Hong Kong’s style teaching materials, helping countless children needing special care. Renita’s idea was to teach and guide her son through gaming with him. We are glad to invite Renita to share her self-experience and technique.
We have invited a 3D printing company which teaches children what 3D printing is and how to use a 3D printer. The idea is to develop children’s “STEM” ability and bring unlimited possibility to their logical thinking. This also opens up their career path to future’s industry 4.0. The second part of our workshop will be a music therapy workshop for parents and children. We have invited a therapist from International Music Therapy Centre IMTC (國際音樂治療中心). Music therapy is well known for improving children’s cognitive functioning, social and communication skills, physical and emotional status. We hope to see parents and children learn more in our workshop. Most importantly, parents can spend more time playing with their children.
- Speaker sharing for parents
- 3D printing workshop for 3-12
- Questionnaire
- Music workshop for 3-6
- Interactive game for parents and children
Special Thanks to our supporting company: Chiilaku Limited
Chiilaku Limited (“Chiilaku”) was founded in 2013. We are a Hong Kong based company that designs, licenses and produces merchandise with our characters. They are young, energetic and passionate about spreading and sharing the fun-ness of their characters. Chiilaku is currently partnering with a lot of great companies, for example: Against Child Abuse, AEON, AMOY, ASUS, Casablanca, CMCase, HKTDC Designgallery, Domain, CTS, HKTV Mall, etc.
JCI Tsuen Wan has been authorized to use their well-known character “Tar Tar” to promote our CPR project. We are super excited to cooperate with a Hong Kong local brand to promote both the project and local product.
Lastly, please stay tuned! JCI Tsuen Wan will update our CPR project schedule soon. We wish to see more parties that can support our project! Please visit our e-publication gateway below!
Special thanks to:
Chiilaku Limited (“Chiilaku”) Website
chiilaku.com.hk
JCI Tsuen Wan Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/childrensplayrights
JCI Tsuen Wan Website
jcitsuenwan.org/cpr
