As the Good Neighbors International Philippines’ (GNIP) celebration of National Children’s Month, we gladly announce the opening for entries and submissions for the Tinig ng Kabataan Film Festival. As such, we invite all interested parties to join the Tinig ng Kabataan Film Festival where you can have the chance to win coveted prizes while using this platform to make your voices heard.

Rationale of Activity
As a child-focus organization, we have been deeply engaged in child rights protection and advocacy. We plan and implement projects that respect the human rights of the children premised on our unchanged belief that they are imbued with inherent worth and dignity, and this is aligned in fulfillment of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). GNIP has been operating in eleven (11) Community Development Project (CDP) areas across the country.

In its more than ten (10) years of serving the Filipino children, GNIP has been successful in pushing forward its agenda on child rights advocacy in close collaboration with its partners like schools, local government units, and other like-minded NGOs. In the schools and communities where we work, Child Rights Club (CRC) has been organized and they have evolved as advocates and rights defenders of the children. These CRCs have institutionalized regular activities in their respective schools and communities with support from the Good Neighbors. On an annual basis, our CRC has been leading the celebration of the Children’s Month every November.

For this year, GNIP has planned to upscale its advocacy at a national level by creatively involving the children, youth, and professionals in promoting the rights of the children using Film Festival as a platform in hearing the voices of the children. The focus area of the Film Festival is on the 4 types/categories of children’s rights based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN CRC) which are:

1. Survival rights: include the child’s right to life and the needs that are most basic to existence such as nutrition, shelter, an adequate living standard, and access to medical services.
2. Development rights: include the right to education, play, leisure, cultural activities, access to information, and freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.
3. Protection rights: ensure children are safeguarded against all forms of abuse, neglect, and exploitation, including special care for refugee children; safeguards for children in the criminal justice system; protection for children in employment; protection and rehabilitation for children who have suffered exploitation or abuse of any kind.
4. Participation rights: encompass children’s freedom to express opinions, to have a say in matters affecting their own lives, to join associations and to assemble peacefully. As their capacities develop, children should have increasing opportunities to participate in the activities of the society, in preparation for adulthood.

Goal and Objectives
The Film Festival, as mentioned earlier, is an up-scaled and national activity of Good Neighbors in observance of the Children’s Month in November 2019. The overarching goal of the activity is to widen the reach of Good Neighbors’ advocacy on the rights of the children through the production of short films. This means that the film festival is open to all and not only limited to our project areas. This will provide opportunities even to those living from hard-to-reach areas to participate and allow our organization to hear their voices and vicariously learn from their experiences and perspectives.

The objectives of the activity are the following:
1. Awareness and participation of the Filipinos in promoting the rights of the children are increased.
2. Networks in advocating for the rights of the children are widened.

Theme
The theme of this year’s activity is dubbed Tinig ng Kabataan. It conveys the message that we are giving high value and priority to the concerns of the Kabataan (operationally translated in English as children/youth) who will be the voice of the nation in the future. Their voice relevant to our activity means the recognition, promotion, and protection of the children’s rights.

To join, please complete the Google form through https://forms.gle/s3XdTDbYEPSEhDpW8 or email us at submissions@goodneighbors.ph to request a printable copy of the concept and entry form for email submission. Join the celebration, create, submit, and we’ll see you at the FREE Film Screening of Finalists on November 17.

Be one of us and support the Filipino children!