Roció Valdez lives in a small town in Paraguay.

There are five schools in the town and she approached each of them to tell them about the Human Dignity Curriculum (HDC). Of these, one gave her permission to present the HDC to the principal of the school and its teachers.

The teachers and the principal loved the idea and gave Roció permission to teach the HDC to the grade three students. Then the pandemic hit.

“At first, students were sent home and school activities were canceled. Then, despite the fact that the school was not allowed to do in-person instruction, the students were told they could go to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays to do the HDC. The reaction of the kids was really great; they were excited about going to the school for a special class and they never missed a class because of how excited they were…”

But after a few lessons, Roció noticed that one of the students was being bullied because of her skin color. “They called her quemadita which means burned.” Roció told the kids not to say this, but they didn’t listen.

“Then, when we talked about the value of human dignity and that we have human dignity even when we have differences, by the end of that lesson, the tone in the room had changed and the students were noticeably more collaborative.”

Students hold signs from the curriculum that read: “I have the power to think and choose” and “I am worthy.”

Due to the popularity of the program, the school asked Roció to teach the HDC to the grade four students the following year. “Post-pandemic, students were experiencing increased difficulty with reading and writing.” To remedy this, the school gave the HDC a two-hour time slot, from 9-11am every Tuesday and Thursday.

“Despite the generous two-hour time slot, the HDC class would still sometimes run for three hours, because the kids would skip their break and eat in the classroom to keep the discussions going.”

“The HDC covers a lot of important ideas that kids don’t usually get to talk about in school,” says Roció. “The questions are interesting and deep, so kids are allowed to show their feelings and be sincere. They like it.

In the lesson on Heroism, the heroes the fourth-grade students selected were their grandparents, their teachers, and Roció. At the end of the class, one student told Roció that thanks to her, he knows he has value.

“There is a lot of poverty, and many of these children are living in a situation where both their parents have left the country in order to try and find work. In these families, the kids are left with their grandparents and often have to grow up quickly, often acting as the parent to their younger siblings. Most kids are sensitive to the topic and don’t want to talk about their parents at all.”

I ask Roció if the kids are surprised to learn that they have human dignity? There is a pause as she wipes away tears. “Yes. At the end of the curriculum, all of the kids cried that the classes were over. HDC gives them back their identity. Because, in the end, the kids understood what human dignity is and that they were really valued. And it made them so happy.”

Take a look at what educators are saying about the Human Dignity Curriculum!

Kisumu Juvenile Remand Home is a place where children in conflict with the law are committed by court until their matters are finalized. Some are orphans, others are from situations of neglect, living on the street.

At the Remand Home, they are safe, they have accommodation and food, and now they also know that their human dignity is intrinsic and can’t be given or taken away.

Beginning in April, every other Tuesday, the young people of Kisumu Remand home would gather in small groups, or, little house “Nyumba Ndogo” and big house “Nyumba Kubwa”, to take the Human Dignity Curriculum (HDC), taught by a facilitator.

“Some of these children haven’t been in school for quite some time, and so, based on their level of literacy, they received instruction from either the Kindergarten or Grade 7 level of the Human Dignity Curriculum (HDC),” explains Cynthia Maingi, Director of World Youth Alliance Africa, the organization behind the program.

“They come into this place that is safe, they find themselves among other children and encounter adults who care about them. As a result, they build rapport quickly with the facilitators. Whether it’s a week or three months, sometimes… the facilitators know it’s a limited time to impact this person’s life.”

The homes make do with what little resources they have.

The cost of the Human Dignity Curriculum was covered by World Youth Alliance, but facilitators translated each lesson into Swahili for delivery to the children.

To meet the challenges of the low literacy level, they got creative, bringing salt, lemons and sugar into the room to explain the idea of the human senses.

Gathering plants from outside, they explained the lesson on the Hierarchy of Being, highlighting the powers that plants, animals and humans share, and the two powers that are unique to humans: the power to think and the power to choose.

Most children’s homes in Kenya try to implement programs aimed at teaching life skills, such as financial literacy or dealing with issues of peer pressure.

“Of the partners we’ve worked with…” begins Cynthia, before re-stating:

“ALL of the partners we have worked with, say that what stands out for them is that the Human Dignity Curriculum starts with the question: who am I?” 

For the children of Kisumu Juvenile Remand Home, they may think the answer to that question is confusing, embarrassing, or worse.

“Yes, many of the children feel they’ve been rescued from situations that are so unbearable,” says Cynthia, who has worked with various children’s homes in Nairobi.

Learn more about this K-12 curriculum that changes lives!

“HDC teaches children  that even if you’re going to this Remand Home, that doesn’t negate the fact that you have the same value as every other person.”

At the end of one of the lessons in the Grade 7 Curriculum, the lesson concludes with a True or False quiz that rings true to the images capturing HDC scholars diligently at work, residents of the Kisumu Juvenile Remand Home:

“Society does not give us human dignity; every human being has dignity, whether society recognizes it or not.” True.

“If we live in difficult circumstances with a lot of distress, we still have human dignity.” True.

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