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We are a team of optimists seeking to make a difference in the lives of children and young people in Malawi. We work with local communities and other strategic stakeholders to find information solutions that empower children in their education, health, social, and community lives.
“To contribute towards the promotion of the rights and development of children and young people through information exchange, information documentation, and information dissemination.”
“a social order where children are an integral part of the Family, community, or National life and their basic rights are upheld.”
Child Rights Information and Documentation Centre (CRIDOC) is a non-profit professional organisation, primarily concerned with creating access to information on child rights or related issues through Research, Documentation, ICT, and other communication channels.
The Centre was founded as a documentation and ICT project on child rights issues in 2003 by a Malawian media intern, who was at the time working as a voluntary editor for the Child Labour News Service (CLNS), an online project run by Global March Against Child Labour in New Delhi, India. Author of a children’s book on HIV & AIDS entitled “Gone for A Walk,” and currently a project management specialist based in Botswana, George was particularly inspired by the heart-rending true stories of exploitation of children and young people, featured daily on the CLNS website, and sourced from various news agencies around the world, including Malawi. He was then inspired to establish CRIDOC back in Malawi.
Today, the Centre puts particular emphasis on the uniqueness of every child and young person, and the complexity of grappling with issues concerning their welfare in Malawi, especially in the face of the gruelling poverty, HIV and AIDS and orphanage, high illiteracy rates, child labour, juvenile justice, the plight of street children, and many other social ills affecting our children.
As such, the Centre, therefore, takes the lead in providing information to children, NGO advocates, and researchers. The Centre respects the rights and dignity of children and all those concerned with their education and social welfare.
We, therefore, seek to promote awareness of child rights issues through media, public relations, outreach programmes, seminars, conferences, and other traditional and non-traditional modes of communication. We also actively participate in advocacy networks at the national level.
CRIDOC was duly registered with the Office of the Registrar General as a legally operating Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) in Malawi on 31 July 2006 under the Trustees Incorporation Act (CAP. 5:03).
The NGO, which is mostly run by young volunteers, is also legally affiliated with the National Youth Council of Malawi (NYCOM) which operates under the National Youth Council Act No. 22 of 1996. The centre is also a member of the Council for Non-Governmental Organisations in Malawi (CONGOMA).
It is affiliated with several key human rights networks and forums, both at national and international levels, where it has significantly contributed its expertise. One such network at the local level is the Malawi Health Equity Network (MHEN) where CRIDOC’s former founding Director, George Kayange, once served on its Program Advisory Committee.
Other networks and forums include the Malawi Network against Child Trafficking (M-NACT); the Civil Society Education Network (CSEC); and the Lilongwe District Education Network (LIDEN) – an affiliate of CSEC.
The CRIDOC Secretariat, situated at Manobec Complex, along Chipembere Highway, also currently hosts the Youth Act Alliance (YAA), a coalition of youth organisations across the current that has been engaged in various youth-focused projects and activities.
The Centre has a secretariat to carry out its programmes and activities. The secretariat consists of the Executive Director, Finance Assistant, and Programme Manager/Assistant.
The centre, however, mostly (and primarily) relies so much on the volunteers and interns who spend their precious time contributing towards the implementation of the activities in various ways. The volunteers are involved in carrying out research, documentation of resources at the Centre, fundraising activities, etc.
In return, they gain experience and expertise, which they use when they finally get employment with other already long-established organisations.
The affairs of the CRIDOC are managed by the Board of Registered Trustees – at least at the policy level – who exercise all such powers of the CRIDOC regarding the financial, management and general administrative matters and all other matters of fundamental importance.
Most members of the Board of Trustees are youths drawn from various disciplines such as law, education, theology, medicine, communications, and business.
