In a bid to help young lives from falling prey to crime and drug abuse, an initiative led by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime [UNODC] has come up with a rural school run by a small team of educators in the rural outskirts of Varanasi district in Uttar Pradesh. The educators at the ‘Round Table Abhinav Vidyalaya’ have been appointed to train the youth into becoming ‘integrity guardians’ at district’s Mirzamurad village.
The purpose of this initiative is to use education to strengthen socio-emotional resilience of students with meaningful engagement on crime prevention, SDGs [sustainable development goals] and peace. Educators who were trained under this initiative reflected on good practices to engage young people using activities, games, videos and other tools.
The UN initiative is based on the idea of placing a’Integrity guardians’: UN initiative to inculcate socio-emotional resilience amongst childrennti-corruption education and ensuring training at the core of a holistic and multidisciplinary approach to promote transparency, accountability, integrity and a culture of rejection of corruption as a basis for preventing and countering corruption.
“Education with experience can transform lives. It was helpful to know about the GRACE [Global Resource for Anti-corruption Education and Youth Empowerment] initiative, and how educational resources can be used in classroom activities to build integrity in students as a core value. Our engagement with UNODC over the last two years has been a story of impact,” Jaya Shukla Tewari, principal of the Round Table Abhinav Vidyalaya was quoted in an official press statement.
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The UN initiative is based on the idea of placing anti-corruption education and ensuring training at the core of a holistic and multidisciplinary approach.
An interactive session was also conducted with young students from the village to sensitise them on crime prevention and integrity. Conducted with the use of activities and visuals, the session was immersive, reflective and elicited enthusiastic responses from students. Calling integrity a “superpower”, students pledged to be ‘integrity guardians’ to build a safer, peaceful and inclusive future.
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GRACE – promotes a holistic approach to empowering the next generation to act with integrity and be less tolerant of corruption and unethical practices. It is a major step in UNODC’s work in engaging young people to be active problem-solvers in tackling corruption, targeting three specific areas: Primary and Secondary Education; Academia and Research; and Youth Empowerment.
