MANTHOC is the Spanish acronym for Movimiento de Adolescentes y Niños Trabajadores Hijos de Obreros Cristianos. Founded in Peru in 1976, it is Latin America’s oldest, self-led movement of working children and young people aged between 6 to 18 years. With a presence throughout the country, MANTHOC seeks to defend the rights of working children and youth by empowering them and amplifying their voices in society.
MANTHOC children learn to organise themselves collectively, to discuss the problems they encounter in their daily lives, to learn about and defend their rights, and to acquire effective advocacy skills. Adults accompany them throughout this process through activities like training workshops, lobbying public authorities, mobilizing demonstrations, and supporting the creation of children’s citizens’ councils.
In addition to defending children’s rights, the environment, and gender equality, MANTHOC campaigns above all for dignified work that respects their rights (school, health, etc.) and takes firm stances against any exploitation of children (mining, school dropouts, sex work, etc.)
Originating from working-class backgrounds, the children and young people in MANTHOC work in a variety of activities before or after school (family farming, street vending, child care, etc.), often with another family member. Every year, representatives from all operational regions gather in Lima to elect a team of child and youth delegates who form the political head of the social movement. Delegates are responsible for guiding an array of action and include the adult members of the organisation’s steering committee.
MANTHOC is not only very active in Peru but also internationally, participating in other movements such as MIDADE (International Movement for the Apostolate of Children) and MOLACNATS (Latin American Movement of Working Children and Youth).
Hashtag Gulu is a young organisation initially composed of volunteers and well-wishers devoted to supporting young people living on the streets of Gulu (Uganda). This grassroots group came together through a Facebook message from one of its founding members.
The organisation formalised its activities through an initial project funded in 2020 to provide vocational training and job-seeking support to 90 young persons living on the streets of Gulu, alongside extensive advocacy work, which remains a core activity that is at the heart of Hashtag’s mandate. The organisation supports street connected young people because they are among the most vulnerable and overlooked groups in Uganda. Hashtag Gulu works to reintegrate these vulnerabilised youth back into society. Street connected children and youth are extremely hard to reach, as they are very suspicious of others and heavily stigmatised by the wider society. The bonds that Hashtag Gulu nurture with young people living on the streets, and the trust they develop and both precious and necessary to the success of their programmes.
With an astute awareness of the myriad difficulties faced by young people living on the streets, Hashtag Gulu has crafted an ambitious strategic plan based on a holistic approach. Physical and mental health, school and /or vocational education opportunities, entertainment, the development of self-esteem, advocacy, and awareness raising are all part of the approaches deployed by Hashtag Gulu. The organization bases its interventions on the development of partnerships with actors specialising in their respective fields in order to achieve its objectives. It also carries out small-scale research in order to better understand the community it serves and to set up programmes that respond to their unique needs. Hashtag Gulu makes a point to meaningfully engage the people it serves in all of its projects from design phase to roll-out to assessment, so as to foster a sense of collective ownership and a non-hierarchical relationship.
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