Aimed at providing a platform to ‘Listen to Children,’ Arigatou International – End Child Poverty Knowledge Centre in collaboration with the Sarvodaya movement in Sri – Lanka provided a platform for creative performances by children related to the challenges they face in their community such as child labour and corporal punishment. The performances included dancing, poetry and music.

These creative performances took place during training programs for preschool teachers on 13 and 17 October 2018, respectively in commemoration of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty,(IDEP).

The training program, which took place on 13 and 17 October 2018 brought together sixty (60) preschool teachers, who were mainly trained on Early Child Development and child protection; with an overarching message of ‘Listening to Children.’ Keeping in mind that a child’s early experiences and environment are formative for life, hence the need to train the teachers in early childhood development.

Having ‘Listened to Children,’ Arigatou International – End Child Poverty, Knowledge Centre and the Sarvodaya movement took part in taking forward the national campaign to end corporal punishment for children in schools in Sri-Lanka by 2020.

The efforts made by the Arigatou International – End Child Poverty, Knowledge Centre and the Sarvodaya movement are part of the global efforts that Arigatou International – End Child Poverty together with its partners are taking to end child poverty. Together, with such small but impactful actions, we can end poverty in more than one (1) million children living in poverty worldwide.