Be-Free
| Founded | 2002 |
|---|---|
| Type | Non-profit |
| Location | |
| Slogan | for Safe Childhood...Conscious Adolescence...Cohesive Family...and Humanistic Society |
| Website | Official website |
Be-Free is a humanitarian organization in Bahrain that aims to protect children from abuse and neglect. It was started on 19 March 2002, with the support of the former Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson.
Be-Free has 3 phases, that started successively and are ongoing.
Phase 1- Empowering Children: This phase started with the launch of the program in March 2002, and concentrated on empowering children with the essential protection skills. Be-Free believes that children can be less likely to be abused if they have some of the essential protection skills, such as "my body is mine", "good touch and bad touch", "good secret and bad secret", etc. Therefore Be-Free trains children on these skills in a fun and interactive ways. A website was created for children to teach them these skills, www.be-free.info. Children and parents can contact Be-Free for counseling or inquiries through the website or the help email provided.
Phase 2- Supporting the Parents and Caregivers: This phase focuses on helping parents and caregivers on how to protect their children from abuse, and how not to abuse their own children.
Phase 3- Having a dedicated center: In January 2006, and with the support of Esterad Investment Company Be-Free officially opened a center to protect children from abuse and to provide healing for abused children or adults victims of abuse in childhood.
Solidarity Campaigns
- Fatima, the missing child: In 2002, Fatima was 11 years old when she went missing from her father's house, after being severely physically and emotionally abused by her father and his girlfriend. Be-Free held a campaign (It was considered the biggest in the history of the Gulf Countries) to search for Fatima, and to raise the awareness of the community that, child abuse is a community issue and not a family-issue only. High authorities in Bahrain were involved in the searching campaign including the King of Bahrain H.M. Shaikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, and the Prime Minister H.H. Shaikh Khalifa ibn Salman Al Khalifa. The child was not found until now.
- Protecting children under war: In 2006 Be-Free started a 30 days campaign to raise awareness about the rights of children under war to be safe and protected, and that children should not be targets for any war.
- Protect children from abuse: This was a 40 days campaign (10 October 2008- 19November 2008) to raise community awareness about protecting children from abuse. In this campaign mini-workshops were delivered in shopping malls, health centers, and clubs for both children and parents (each separately) .
Programs
Child Rights
In April 2008, and in partnership with UNICEF, Be-Free started a program for Teaching child rights to children, under the name "It's my right to understand my rights". This program is based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Protection of children over the Internet
In July 2008, Be-Free started a new program to protect children from the dangers of the Internet "SMART+".[1]
Children with disability
In February 2009, Be-Free launched a special protection program for Children with disability "I am a Strong, Smart, and Safe Child …in spite of my disability" under the patronage of the UN Special Rapporteur on Disability H.H. Sh. Hessa Al-Thani.