Human Rights Office, Projects and Progress

January has continued to be quiet in terms of projects as many of them are still on shut down from the Christmas and New Year period. Volunteer numbers however have been at one of our highest we've seen in January and we've had a lot of people working hard on legal cases as well as planning for future workshops for the projects that continued to run.

Bonnytoun – This month one of the focuses at Bonnytoun has been the topic of ‘drugs’ and how taking them can affect the people around you and your future. Many of the boys have had first hand experience with drugs and so rather than go in and preach to the boys about how drugs are bad and their side effects,

This month saw the South African public holiday ‘Human Rights Day’. The 21st March is a day in which we remember the massacres in Sharpeville and other parts of South Africa. On this day in 1960, police opened fire and killed 69 people at a peaceful demonstration against the apartheid pass laws. Although the apartheid laws have been abolished there are still many human rights violations taking place within South Africa every day.

Bonnytoun – Our work at Bonnytoun is still being received well by the boys there. This month volunteers have given the boys an insight into each of their own home countries which the boys were really interested in. We have volunteers here from a variety of countries including Thailand, South Korea, Canada and Norway and the boys benefit greatly from hearing about other cultures and countries.