The KidsRights Foundation is an international children's aid and advocacy organisation based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Founded in 2003, KidsRights raises funds for independent local aid projects in a number of countries around the world, including Zimbabwe, Ukraine and Haiti.
"KidsRights seeks to give a voice to the utterly voiceless," the organisation quotes Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu as saying.
The organisation's mission is to support and empower vulnerable children around the world, by raising funds for small-scale local projects, and by raising awareness for children’s rights through the international media.
The foundation has instituted an annual award, the International Children's Peace Prize, to honour a child who has made a significant contribution to advocating children's rights and improving the situation of vulnerable children. The first Children's Peace Prize was presented in 2005 by Mikhail Gorbachev during the Nobel for Peace Summit in Rome, an annual meeting of Nobel Peace Prize winners. The $10,000 prize was posthumously awarded to Nkosi Johnson, a South African boy who brought attention to children with HIV/AIDS and set up the Nkosi's Haven orphanage.
Charitable events to raise funds for KidsRights have been nationally televised in the Netherlands and have featured performances from well-known artists like Andrea Bocelli, Ronan Keating, Ilse de Lange and the Sugababes. Corporate sponsors include Trust, KLM and ABN-AMRO.
KidsRights Foundation is not related to KIDSRIGHTS, an Indianapolis-based publisher and distributor of materials on child abuse prevention and treatment.
Famous quotes containing the words kids, rights and/or foundation:
“The quickness with which all the “stuff” from childhood can reduce adult siblings to kids again underscores the strong and complex connections between brothers and sisters.... It doesn’t seem to matter how much time has elapsed or how far we’ve traveled. Our brothers and sisters bring us face to face with our former selves and remind us how intricately bound up we are in each other’s lives.”
—Jane Mersky Leder (20th century)
“Since woman’s rights have come up a young woman is better able to fight her own battle.”
—Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)
“I have witnessed the tremendous energy of the masses. On this foundation it is possible to accomplish any task whatsoever.”
—Mao Zedong (1893–1976)