Nominations - Access, Inform, Educate

A new website was developed in 2008 combining great looks, extensive content and high levels of interactivity with a bespoke game educating young people on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, a backchat questionnaire and even a Bebo widget.

The aims were:

• To produce an interactive website that is attractive and accessible to target audiences

• To provide a more informative, resource rich website

• To encourage children and young people to share their views and opinions with the organisation in a safe manner via Backchat, to inform the Commissioner's work

• To raise awareness of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child

The website had to meet the diverse needs of children, young people, professionals and other adults.

Children and young people from across Wales would be the website's primary audience. A series of workshops were held with over two hundred young people in south and north Wales to ensure the design and feel of the site was correct.

Content needed to be easily accessible, fully bilingual (English and Welsh) and presented in an interactive way. Content includes:

• Education about the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child via a fully bilingual, interactive game (complete with audio instructions in English and Welsh) – 'Know Your Rights'.

• Backchat questions (which could be downloaded as a Bebo widget so that new questions would be delivered to the recipient's personal web space) to collect the views and opinions of children and young people on various subjects

• Easy to find information about our school ambassadors scheme

• Promoting the work of the Commissioner through the 'About Us' section

• Enabling the Commissioner's school ambassadors to upload content securely (posters, poems, photos) to share with their counterparts across the country

27 October 2009

I though this game was brilliant, it was fun and challenging but i learnt alot.

Submitted by Millie May, 12 November 2009

great website really helpful for children to learn from. i can honestly say one of the best websites iv used at school over the last 2 years.

thank you !

Submitted by holly letters, 12 November 2009

Brilliant ! helped with my understanding in a-level work for diploma in childcare. recommended it to friends, id re visit just for fun. have my certificate from human rights game loved it . great for my age range x

Submitted by Katy Byng, 12 November 2009

I thought the game was very fun and a great way to help children learn about our own rights. It also helped me to see how well I already knew my own rights - as I got them all right first time round :)

Submitted by Steph Black, 12 November 2009

I think it was very fun and educational. Helped me to see what i knew about the rights - and i knew a lot as i got them all right :) It was a colourful sight.

Submitted by Laura Turner, 12 November 2009

i didnt agree with this website.

didnt learn a thing.

Submitted by mrs moore, 12 November 2009

loved it

Submitted by nell, 12 November 2009

Pelican Post is dedicated to providing children in Africa with appropriate books and increase their chances of becoming fully literate, something in the developed world is considered a basic human right. The site has already had over 13000 hits in 3 months and individuals have pledged to post more than 100 books to the 20 nominated schools in Africa, including Uganda, Tanzania and Ghana. All the authors featured on the site are donating their time to promote the project and we have gained enormous support from all the partner organisations along with celebrities like John Humphrys and Alexander McCall Smith. We are partnered with companies like Amazon and supported by established charities including Book Aid and various local trusts in Africa. This is a new model for a charity to donate books direct to schools and many organisations are interested in the effectiveness of this method of donation. Its an amazing achievement within just two years and the team of people working with Nick Johnson are incredibly proud of being involved in the project. We would love to become a charity that is self-funded to allow us to develop the site further, improving integration with other sites like Amazon and increasing the amount of material available to browse online such as podcasts by the authors and feedback from children at the schools, which would rally further support from schools in the UK and overseas. We already have a school in Australia working to raise money through selling chocolate to pledge books to our schools and look forward to involving children in the developed world to support the literacy mission in Africa. It would be fantastic to be able to offer the same accepted right to read to African children that children in the UK take for granted. Pelican Post has the potential to do just that and we hope this award will help us on our way to this goal.

Nominated by Ruth Wells, 21 October 2009

This is a fantastic concept and deserves to succeed. A fantastically simple way to make a difference.

Submitted by Robert Thain, 21 October 2009