Child Rights Information Center (CRIC) – Moldova

Aisu Isacov is 19 years old. She was born in Azerbaijan and grew up in Molovata, a village in Republic of Moldova. She defends human rights and wants every child to be respected and live in a society without discrimination. Aisu became Save the Children’s programme beneficiary when she was 15 years old. Back then, she applied to be a member of the Reflection Group, a group of children monitoring their rights that is administering the Children’s Platform, guided by the Child Rights Information Centre Moldova (CRIC).

“I found here a free and friendly environment, different from my school. My heart was beating so fast at the beginning and my body was sweating while I was expressing my opinion, thinking that it would not be accepted by other people. Now I am open-minded, brave and free to express my ideas”, said Aisu Isacov.

The competencies she developed as a member of the Reflection Group helped her to be involved in Pupil’s Councils, Discussion Clubs for teenagers, child rights campaigns (e.g. “Schools with clean and safe toilets”), volunteering activities.

“In our community, I think I managed to inspire pupils to be more critical and to defend their rights. In our school, for example, children don’t have to monitor other children during the breaks anymore, because I convinced teachers that they defy our right to rest and leisure in this way. Another positive result is that administration gave up putting on the wall `Chipărușul’, a piece of paper with all the `bad’ pupils names with the intention to punish or to shame them.

Our voice is heard and listened to now. I am not afraid anymore to tell teachers or the director that I dislike some things or situations in the school. Pupils’ Council put on its agenda more relevant things than ‘Teacher’s Day’ or other celebrations with no connection with our needs. Pupils’ Council mission is to identify children’s problems in school, to propose ideas, to ask teachers and school administration to solve these problems.”

In 2018, Aisu was involved in the research on the functioning of school Pupils’ Councils in Moldova. The study was supported by SCI, launched during a media event with the participation of education authorities, and published in November 2019.

Now she is a human rights junior expert and supports a new Reflection Group to carry out research on sexuality education in Moldovan schools.

In 2020, Aisu started facilitating workshops for Pupils’ Councils as a CRIC team member. As a junior expert, she has a valuable contribution in shaping CRIC’s interventions in the child participation field.