Our new members:

Kids Empowerment – France

Kids Empowerment is a non-governmental organization founded in 2016 whose mission is to advocate for State compliance with international law related to children and youth in migration (0-25 years old), particularly the principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocols. Kids Empowerment envisages a world where child safeguarding is guaranteed everywhere without discrimination. The values the organization considers essential to the implementation of this vision are empowerment, non-discrimination, child safeguarding measures, diversity and the rule of law.

Kids Empowerment’s current projects include:

• Country Reports on legal frameworks affecting children on the move: The country reports describe the legal frameworks affecting migrating children in reception and transit countries. The reports identify best practices and reforms needed to guarantee that the rights of these children are compliant with international law. 
• Training for legal guardians of unaccompanied minors: Kids Empowerment is currently developing a comprehensive on-line training for legal guardians of unaccompanied minors covering legal aspects and matters of child psychology, trauma, child trafficking and cross-cultural communication.
• EmpowerMIE: A mobile application is in development to provide unaccompanied minors in France with necessary information about procedures related to childcare protection, seeking asylum in France, and applying for family reunification in a third European country while still in France.

Iride Cooperative Sociale – Italy

Iride is a social cooperative that was founded in Sicily in 2004 to protect and assist vulnerable groups in the areas of migration, social welfare and childcare services in Sicily and Calabria in Southern Italy where many migrants land, mainly from North Africa, after dangerous journeys.

A big part of Iride’s work focuses on the protection of unaccompanied children, vulnerable women and girls and families with children. Iride provides migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers with psychological and psychosocial support, education, legal assistance, accommodation, and cultural mediation. They also work to promote and foster social integration and long-term inclusion, for example through cultural and sporting initiatives involving both high school students and unaccompanied children and young migrants. Iride also supports children to access education and training.

Micol Liardo, Italian language teacher at Iride, said about Iride’s hopes on joining Destination Unknown: “We would like to share positive and inspiring examples of the integration of children and young migrants in our local communities and cities as well as the challenges that children, young migrants and we, as social workers, face in our work. We would like to learn from Destination Unknown’s members and join forces with them to call on policy and decision-makers to improve immigration policies. And we would like to give a voice to the children and youth - the real protagonists of our work.”

Interested in becoming a member of Destination Unknown? Click here to find out more.

Photo copyright Iride.