terre des hommes Germany works with local partners in implementing projects in Southeast Asia. It works in 7 out 10 ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) member countries, namely Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. In 2011, a total of 103 projects are in operation in these countries.
Pursuing its mission and the mandate of the Delegates’ Conference, tdh and partners in region promote Child rights through project work, capacity building, coalition building, networking and advocacy. Emphasis is placed on child participation, as an integral principle in realizing the fulfillment of the rights of children, as well as the building up of child protection mechanisms within child-caring institutions, homes, schools and communities.
Projects follow the General Criteria of terre des hommes Germany and are oriented to the focal Themes as defined by the Delegates’ Conference, namely:
■ Children in Violent Conflicts
■ Education and Training
■ Globalization, Children, and Cultural and Biological Diversity
■ Child Labour
■ HIV/AIDS and Children (including psychosocial support)
Within terre des hommes Germany, the understanding of partnership goes beyond funding. As such, partners are not only those who currently receive financial support, but also include those who are involved in capacity building activities, advocacy work, networking and others common endeavours. At present, tdh regards more than 200 organizations as partners.
National partner’s meetings, country-based capacity building activities and the regional partners’ meeting are periodical organized to strengthen and empower the partnership.
terre des hommes Germany and partners are implementing a regional campaign, dubbed “Our Rivers, Our Life”. The campaign highlights the role of children and youths as protagonists and active agents in preserving biodiversity of rivers and ecosystems. This campaign on rivers raises many mono-crop plantations, dams, pollution of rivers by factories and commercial ships, threatened cultures of ethnic communities, loss of livelihood of fishers, scarcity of water, loss of biodiversity, climate change and other problems. A discourse on Ecological Child Rights is developing from these concrete practical experiences, and in turn this discourse provides a theoretical orientation to what is happening and implemented on the ground.
Internationally, terre des hommes Germany organizes every three years the Delegates’ Conference, participated in by democratically elected representatives from project partners worldwide and other stakeholders, to decide on focal themes, strategic goals, and co-decision mechanisms. The next Delegates Conference took place in October 2013 in Germany.
