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Our characteristics

The Child-to-Child approach:

• Respects children's views and voices to enable them to grow into responsible adults.
• Advocates for children's active participation that links learning with living and promotes reflection.
• Facilitates children's understanding of development issues and why healthy behaviours are important.
• Includes relevant, do-able and fun activities that promote life skills, confidence and self-esteem.
• Encourages children to take ownership and identify health and development priorities relevant to themselves and their communities.
• Develops children's decision-making and problem-solving abilities in order to take action on identified priorities.
• Develops children's ability to communicate, empathise and cope with difficult circumstances.
• Recognises children's capacities as change agents, who require the facilitative support but not the dominance of adults.
• Ensures that the personal development of the children implementing activities are as important as those of children with whom they are working (e.g. older children working with pre-schoolers).

Child-to-Child approaches to learning and action

The Child-to-Child approach links children's learning (in or out of schools) with their lives (home and community) so that knowledge translates into behaviour and action.

The Child-to-Child matrix shows how a child or children can participate in health and development. Group activities should be integral to the Child-to-Child approach.

The Child-to-Child step approach: a health action methodology

Using a series of linked activities, or 'steps', children think about health issues, make decisions, develop their life-skills and take action to promote health in their communities, with the support of adults.

Choose and Understand
Children identify and assess their health problems and priorities.

Find out More
Children research and find out how these issues affect them and their communities.

Discuss what we Found and Plan Action
Based on their findings children plan action that they can take individually or together.

Take Action
Children take action with support that they have identified as needed from adults.

Evaluate
Children evaluate the action they took: What went well? What was difficult? Has any change been achieved?

Do it better
Based on their evalution children find ways of keeping the action going or improving it.