Queen Silvias’ Foundation grants support to two new and sex re-applying organisations

The grants of fall 2022, were awarded two new projects and six re-applying projects, working to ensure that children and young people have their fundamental rights met thorugh receiving psychosocial support, education, safer off and online everyday life, both in Sweden and abroad.

All applications received were reviewed and underwent a selection process with the help of our advisory board. Following this, the board made their decisions.

Two new projects were granted support for 2022:

RealStars, project Why sex cannot be bought – creating a room for dialogue with young people.

In 2022, RealStars Stockholm intends to implement the project – Why sex cannot be bought – create rooms for dialogue with young people. The purpose of the project is to create “rooms” for dialogue with young people, mainly at upper secondary school level, grades 1 and 2, regarding attitudes and norms linked to the purchase of sex and sexual exploitation. The goal is to reduce the demand for sex purchases through changed attitudes and thereby reduce the risk of young men growing up to be perpetrators or being victimized themselves, as well as to prevent girls, who are the most vulnerable, from being subjected to sexual exploitation.

RealStars is an independent non-profit organization founded in 2010, with the aim of working for Fair Sex and a better world free from sex trafficking. Real Stars works preventively both nationally and within the EU and focuses on eliminating the demand that drives human trafficking. The organization also works for the spread of the Swedish Sex Purchase Act as an important tool to counter trafficking and promote gender equality.

The project also includes developing creative ways of expression, Creativity for Fair Sex, where the target group has the opportunity to discuss taboo subjects under controlled and safe conditions, listen to each other and together agree on rules of conduct for how they should create an environment in their class/group/ school as well as to understand the larger issue connected to the purchase of sex, prostitution and human trafficking. After the discussion and lecture on the theme of sexual exploitation, the students themselves are involved in processing the questions through various forms of creation.

 

The International Rescue Committee, IRC/Rescue, project Access to quality learning for children in the provinces of Bamiyan and Kunduz in Afghanistan.

About 7.9 million children in Afghanistan need immediate education. Research shows that safety concerns, lack of safe spaces for girls in educational institutions (including gender-segregated bathrooms), lack of qualified teachers (especially female teachers) and the effects of closures and security restrictions during covid-19 are some of the biggest barriers to children accessing education. When children cannot learn, they are not given the opportunity to develop and reach their full potential. In addition, children affected by conflict and displacement especially need the normality that learning, and education can provide.

The project Queen Silvia’s Foundation has chosen to support focuses on building temporary learning places (TLS) for out-of-school children in areas where schools are inaccessible, as well as strengthening formal government schools to better support vulnerable children at risk of dropping out of them, which are usually girls.

IRC was founded in 1933 on the initiative of Albert Einstein and helps vulnerable people whose lives and livelihoods have been shattered by conflict and disaster. They work in the most remote and hard-to-reach places on earth and their way of working is developed to consider and support people’s complex needs with a focus on lasting improvement.

IRC has been working in Afghanistan since 1988, and currently has approximately 6,000 employees (41% women) in 10 provinces. There, they help communities before, during and after emergencies – including by providing resettlement and recovery support to displaced populations.

 

Six reapplications were granted continued support:

Child10, Continued support as Main Partner

Knas Hemma, continued support to the project Less Mess, More Love

Ellencentret, continued support to the project Strenghtened support to children and young people exposed to sexual exploatation

Musikbojen, continued support to the project Music therapy at the Children’s hospital in Malmö and Lund, SUS 

SIRA Skolorna Palestina, continued support to the project School education for vulnerable children in Palestine and Jerusalem

Svalorna Latinamerika , continued support to the project Prevention of gender based violence against children and young people in Nicaragua