World’s Children’s Prize (WCP)

World’s Children’s Prize (WCP)

It is also known as the Children’s Nobel Prize. WCP is the world’s largest annual educational program teaching young people about the rights of the child, democracy and global friendship.

The prize was established by the Kids Rights Foundation, an international children’s aid and advocacy organization based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The WCP Foundation is regulated by the Svensk Insamlingskontroll (Swedish Fundraising Control), which protects the interests of donors and ensures that the funds raised are used appropriately.

The award programme, launched in 2000, is supported by 60,000 schools with 29.3 million students in 109 countries and over 600 organisations.

In 2005, the first International Children’s Peace Prize was awarded to Nkosi Johnson posthumously. He was a South African boy who brought international attention to children with HIV/AIDS and founded the Nkosi’s Haven home for HIV-positive mothers and children.

Every year, three Child Rights Heroes are selected by the WCP Child Jury to be candidates for the World’s Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child. The annual program concludes with a “Global Vote”, where children work together to choose their Child Rights Hero. “Global Vote Days” are held in schools around the world like a democratic election.

For the 2014 World’s Children’s Prize, Pakistani teenage rights activist Malala Yousafzai, John Wood from the USA and Nepalese child rights worker Indira Ranamagar are nominated for an award also known as the “Children’s Nobel Prize”.

Ms. Malala Yousafzai nominated for her courageous and dangerous fight for girls’ right to education. She started to speak out for girls’ rights at the age of 11, when the Taliban banned girls from going to school in the Swat Valley in Pakistan.

Mr. John Wood nominated for his 15-year fight for children’s right to education. John quit his job as a manager at the Microsoft company to fulfill his dream: to fight poverty by giving children all over the world the chance to go to school.

Ms. Indira Ramanagar nominated for her 20-year struggle for prisoners’ children in Nepal. She has built up an organisation called Prisoners Assistance Nepal (PA), which has rescued over a thousand children from cramped, dirty prisons.