Child Empowerment

Our Programs for Children

Children are at the center of all we do and how we do it. We work to ensure the creation of safe spaces and learning opportunities, free from any form of violence, where children can be empowered to fully express themselves, participate, engage with people of different cultures and beliefs, to become agents of positive change who can help build just and peaceful societies.

Check out our various programs on ethics education that help empower children and youth. Feel free to get in touch with us if you want to participate or get involved:

Learning to Live Together: An Intercultural and Interfaith Programme for Ethics Education

Learning to Live Together is designed to contribute to the realization of children’s right to a full and healthy physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development. The program provides an educational framework that can be easily adapted to different social and cultural contexts, articulating theory and practice for nurturing ethical values in children and young people.

Learning to Live Together provides educators in formal and non-formal education settings worldwide with tools for designing, implementing, and evaluating intercultural and interfaith educational experiences that empower children to develop a stronger sense of ethical awareness and global citizenship. There are two manuals, tailored for working with children from 6 to 11 years old, and children 12 to 18 years old.

Since its launch in 2008, Learning to Live Together has reached 441,600 children in 45 countries, thanks to the initiatives taken by our implementing partners. In addition, more than 4,900 facilitators have been trained in the use of the program, and 51 of them have become international trainers.=

Learn more and download the resources, here:

Children’s Solutions Lab

Children’s Solutions Lab is an opportunity for children and youth to come together to discuss, learn, and take action to overcome poverty affecting children in their communities, through solutions based on ethics education.

The Children’s Solutions Lab is a collaborative effort led by Arigatou International’s initiatives End Child Poverty and Ethics Education for Children. Its main objective is to help empower children to become agents of change by working together to drive positive transformations in their communities. On every cycle, a micro-grant is awarded to the finalists to implement and scale up their projects.

Visit the Children’s Solutions Lab page to learn about the application process and read the stories from the past awardees.

Creating a Culture of Encounter

The Culture of Encounter project intends to create shared spaces for young people to further develop their knowledge, attitudes and skills and get acquainted with meaningful tools that can encourage them to actively engage with their communities.

The project seeks to reach 100 young people from Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain by the Summer of 2022. Participants will be encouraged to question and transform the narratives of hate speech and discrimination, contributing to creating a culture of encounter, mutual understanding, respect, and solidarity in Europe.

Creating a Culture of Encounter is a collaboration between Arigatou International, the Aga Khan Foundation, the European Wergeland Centre, the Guerrand-Hermès Foundation for Peace Research Institute, and Scholas Occurrentes.

Faith In Action for Children – Virtual Tours

The virtual exhibition “Faith in Action for Children” showed that children had a lot to say about the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in their lives. The exhibition revealed itself as a unique tool to further the reflections among children about the pandemic, and what can be done to support them during these challenging times.

In April 2021, Arigatou International launched a series of virtual tours involving nearly 100 children from 14 countries. During the guided tours children from different countries, cultures, and religions visited the exhibition and shared their views and experiences in dealing with the effects of the pandemic and discussed ways to find coping mechanisms. The guided tours were also an opportunity to foster intercultural and interfaith sensitivity among the children.

These dialogues were possible thanks to the GNRC Coordinators and LTLT facilitators and volunteers who helped organize the tours.

If you work with a group of children and wish to go through this experience, please get in touch.

Learning to Live Together in the Digital Environment

“Learning to Live Together in the Digital World: an intercultural and interreligious program for the education of adolescents between 12 and 18 years,” is a Guide and a Toolkit for educators to promote coexistence among children in the digital world.

Based on Arigatou International’s Ethics Education Framework, the Guide contains concrete guidelines and practical proposals for the design and implementation of systematic ethics education programs for children and adolescents from faith communities and faith-inspired organizations, understanding the new conditions, languages, challenges and opportunities of the digital world.

The Guideline will be launched in 2022.

The story of Arum

This short film narrates the true story of Arun, a boy from Coimbatore, India who impacted the lives of thousands by initiating a food bank when he was only 14 years old, after participating in the Learning to Live Together program.