[hr-education-na] UICHR child labor teacher education program expands to New York

Dear friends and colleagues,

I'm delighted to share this news release with everyone.  The team on Long
Island has done an incredible job on this Children's Rights project.  I
continue to be inspired by great educators.

Cheers,

Chivy

--------------------------------------------

University of Iowa News Release

April 1, 2005

UICHR Child Labor Teacher Education Program Expands To New York

The University of Iowa Center for Human Rights (UICHR) is expanding its
educational outreach programs and will offer workshops around the country
for K-12 teachers to help them integrate human rights and child labor
concerns into their curricula. These workshops began in Iowa City under
the direction of Chivy Sok, former deputy director of the center. Sok
continues to work as a UICHR consultant and will conduct the first
workshop outside Iowa, "Teachers as Catalysts for Social Transformation,"
on Saturday, April 2 at the Long Island University C. W. Post campus in
New York.

"This is part of the Center's long term goal to advance understanding
about critical human rights issues," said Kenneth Cmiel, UICHR director
and UI professor of history and American studies. "The UI Center for Human
Rights remains committed to bringing education about child labor to the
classrooms. We have developed some of the most effective educational
materials on this subject and are now in the process of sharing them with
educators across the nation. The training program in Long Island is just
one of the many educational programs we will implement this year."

Teachers who participate in the UICHR workshops will learn about the
exploitation of children as laborers, a pressing human rights concern, and
will develop teaching strategies that inspire students to contribute to
international dialogue and activism on this issue.

The program in Long Island grew out of ongoing discussions between the
UICHR and a UI alumna who read about the center's work in the UI
publication Spectator. After reading the Spectator article, Beth Vendryes
Williams, an artist and art educator affiliated with the Searingtown
School in Long Island contacted the center about a collaboration to
promote children's rights. She and Karen Kliegman, a librarian and media
technology specialist at Searingtown School and the Resource Editor for
MidLink Magazine, created a program called "Building Bridges for
Children's Rights" and invited Sok to come to New York to present a
workshop for local teachers.

Cmiel said these types of programs are an important part of the Center's
mission. "Education is an important process of promoting systemic change
for social justice," he said. "Teachers and students are instrumental,
especially in the global fight to eradicate exploitative child labor. We
cannot hope to eliminate this human rights violation without engaging
them."

The Long Island workshop is made possible through a collaborative effort
by the UICHR, the Long Island University C. W. Post Educational Technology
Department, Searingtown School, Herricks Community Fund, the Electronic
Education Village, and the International Center on Child Labor and
Education.

THE UICHR is part of UI International Programs, which consists of a number
of offices, centers, degree programs, academic programs, research projects
and services. Organized under the associate provost for academic programs
and dean of International Programs (IP), these units serve to further
internationalize the campus and community and promote global scholarship,
research and teaching.

STORY SOURCE: University of Iowa News Services, 300 Plaza Centre One,
Suite 371, Iowa City, Iowa 52242-2500.

CONTACTS: Media: Mary Geraghty Kenyon, 319-384-0011,
mary-kenyon@uiowa.edu. Program: Amy Weismann, 319-335-0483

OTHER INFORMATION:

Building Bridges Workshop: http://eev.liu.edu/ChivySok/

UICHR: http://uichr.org




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