H.M. Queen Silvia’s Foundation grants funding for two new and five re-applying projects

Two new projects and five re-applying projects have been granted financial support for the application round of spring 2022. In addition, three organizations working with the Ukraine-crisis were granted emergency-support for their work in the region as well as in Sweden. All approved projects promote children’s psychological well-being, their basic rights and access to a safe existence in Sweden and/or abroad.  

All applications submitted to H.M. Queen Silvia’s Foundation have been carefully examined by the Managing Director and the Advisory Board, after which the Board arrived at their decisions.

Two new project applications received funding

Dara Institute – Psychological and educational recreation for children
The Dara Institute is a civil society organization based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, but with a national and international reach. The project, psychological and educational recreation for children, promotes socio-economically vulnerable children’s mental, nutritional and physical development through a tested and proven method in which the whole family is involved. During the Covid pandemic, the Dara Institute identified an increased need for psychological support in the children they meet, whereby the Dara Institute will expand this program in order to be able to meet the needs. To date, the Dara Institute has provided direct support to more than 75,000 marginalized people in Brazil and their work has reached over 1,000,000 people on four continents.

The Swedish Scouts & 4H – Together for children and young people’s mental health! 

The Swedish Scouts and 4H work towards the same goal; to encourage children and young people to be committed, prosperous and responsible persons with respect for the world around them. However, both organizations have identified that many of the children and young people they meet have an increased need for psychological support, but that the leaders of both organizations need further training in the subject to be able to provide adequate support.

Due to the similarities of their target group, the Scouts and 4H chose to send a joint application for financial support. They will investigate and create a working method and material that benefits the mental health of the youths in both organizations.

Five projects were granted extended financial support

ECPAT- Hotline
ECPAT Sweden is a children’s rights organisation that works against the sexual exploitation of children. They have been granted extended support for ECPAT Hotline, an online platform where you can report on sexual abuse and exploitation of children, after which the images are analysed and removed. In 2021, ECPAT conducted over 900,000 evaluations of material online through its participation in the international network INHOPE and with the web-crawler “Project Arachnid”. Between October – December they received 1,462 tips on  sexual abuse of children through ECPAT Hotline, out of which 799 were on  Swedish servers. In 2022, ECPAT aims to expand the organisation further, make over 1.2 million assessments and increase the knowledge about the ECPAT Hotline to both adults and children.

MIND – the Digital waiting room
Mind works for a society that promotes mental well-being – a society where people with mental disorders and psychiatric diagnoses are respected, get the support they need and where no one takes their life. In 2022, MIND will continue to work on the development of the waiting room in the Suicide line’s chatroom, which will offer different kinds of pedagogical  but fun distractions while the children and youths are waiting to reach someone to talk to about their feelings. 

THE RESCUE MISSION – The Sunflower (Solrosen)
Solrosen is a project in Gothenburg and Borås, which works to provide direct support to children and youths who have a parent in custody. Solrosen also contributes with knowledge and education to other organizations or government officials who meet the children, such as the police and staff at the facilities where the parent is held. In 2022, Solrosen will receive support to reach at least 20 new families as well as to implement additional music therapy into their work. They also aim to continue with digital meetings, as this proved to be a successful method during the pandemic, when the children often could not meet the detained parent IRL.

WAR CHILD – Safer together
Safer Together is a long-running project carried out by War Child in illegal settlements close to the ​​Venezuelan boarder in northern Colombia called La Guajira. The project aims to reduce the vulnerability of the Venezuelan refugees living there and who are in distress due to migration, economic vulnerability, armed conflict and crime in the region. During 2022, War Child will implement a sustainable exit-strategy from the project which will ensure that those living in La Guajira can strengthen their capacity to protect children, reduce violence against children and manage psychosocial stress both on their own and in cooperation with each other.

WORLD’S CHILDREN’S PRIZE FOUNDATION – Toi Moi Meme Droits (TMMD)
The World’s Children’s Prize Foundation (WCPF) educates and strengthens children so that they, as changemakers – as children as well as for life – can stand up for compassion, the equal value of all human beings, the rights of the child/human rights (with a special focus on girls’ equal rights), democracy and sustainable development. The majority of the 46 million children educated so far have been vulnerable children, who did not know they had any rights before participating in the WCP program.

In 2022, WCPF will receive support to carry out at least 10 educations for an additional 400 students, 200 teachers and 50 local leaders to reach the goal of educating 1200 students as well as 600 teachers and school leaders.