Programmes and activities

Protecting the children's rights

Programmes for protecting the children's rights focuse on the realization of the UN's Convention on the Rights of the Child, Declaration on Human Rights and other documents related to children, young people and family.

One of these programmes is also Forum against Corporal Punishment of Children in the Family. Read more here... (.doc 30KB)

See the contents (.pdf 33KB) of the book Youth without Corporal Punishment for our Children (Slovenian - English version, printed in April 2007).

See the contents (part 1, part 2) of the book Youth without Corporal Punishment for our Children (only English version, printed in September 2009).
Short information about the book
Cover page

Free time activities and holiday programmes

One of the most important aims of ZPMS is to provide quality free-time holiday programmes for children. The 31st article of the Convention on the Rights of the Child says:«Every child has the right to have free time, to rest, to play and to attend different cultural and art events«. ZPMS has been offering holiday programmes since 1959. The target groups are children and teenagers under 18. Every year 160.000 children take part in ZPMS holiday programmes. 40.000 of them come from socially under-privileged families. Free time and holiday programmes run through the whole year. Programmes are organized and run by professionals and they include sports, entertainment, socializing (friends making) and creativity.

Social and humanitarian programmes

The main aim of social and humanitarian programmes is to prevent social exclusion of children. In ZPMS database, there are more and more requests for financial or material support for children every year. ZPMS raises money and collects goods for children in many different ways:
in 1999 ZPMS organized a national campaign for children called »POMEŽIK SONCU« (A Wink to the Sun) for the first time. Its purpose was to raise money from individuals to provide care-free holidays for children from poor families.
in 2002 ZPMS organized the first charity initiative called »PODARI OBJEM« (Donate an Embrace). The initiative included the setup and organization of locations at which, children with the intention of making friends and blessing their contemporaries, donated toys that they did not use any more. With the donation of a toy, each child received a thank you note as a reminder, that they played an active role in this charity initiative. With this friendly gesture they helped bring a smile on the faces of their contemporaries and friends from socially weak families.

National Telephone Helpline - TOM (Children and Youth Telephone)

TOM is a free telephone line for children and young people. It was established on the request of the Commision for Children's Rights at ZPMS in 1990. From the beginning, the helpline has been providing psychosocial help for children and young people theough conversation with trained counsellors. TOM is organized as a network of 14 advisory teams all over Slovenia. More than 60.000 children's and young people's calls are answered every year. On the basis of these telephone calls an annual analysis of calls is elaborated, which provides a precious indicator of actual problems young people are dealing with.

Children's parliaments

Children's parliaments are educational programmes for the promotion of democracy, which take the form of debates and discusssions on topical issues regarding children and young people. They are held on class, school, community and national level. The topics are different each year and are chosen by children themselves. This project has been going on for ten years and is becoming an essential part of communication among students, teachers and representatives of the state.

The House of Shelter (»HIŠA ZAVETJA«)

The House of Shelter is a new independent project of ZPMS, whose aim is to provide safe temporary residence for children and youngsters who are daily exposed to violence and abuse. The project fills a gap that has existed despite the efforts of similar organizations which provide practical solutions of child abuse. The project is planned to include 12 shelters around Slovenia for an optimal coverage of the entire country. In this way, we hope to improve the efficiency of the programmes and measures taken so far to protect threatened children and youngsters and to provide them a safer and happier childhood.

Reading badge

The basic goals of this programme are: improvement of reading culture among children, teenagers and their parents, consolidation of vocabulary and culture of expressing, expansion of their knowledge on literature, classical writers and especially on modern Slovene literature. We have more than 140.000 children participating in this programme. All organizational tasks are done voluntarily by mentors in elementary schools.

Association of families

Association of families helps parents and children to learn about their rights. It supports inclusion of children with special needs in accordance with their abbilities; it helps influence public opinion for the benefit of child and family, it connects and coordinates common interests of children, parents and the whole family. Association represents the interest of family in public and influences the legislation regulating the status of children and families.

Young researchers - Young Historians

The Commission for young historians at ZPMS was established to introduce research work in history to primary school children. Children in history clubs prepare projects with the help of their mentors. Each year there is a different topic and all projects must be presented in the form of report. There are strict criteria on how to prepare the report. It is important what sources of information children use, how familiar they are with quoting, whether the report has a clear structure, whether it is systematic, and how the results are represented.Young historians present their reports on regional and national level.

In the future ZPMS will continue to follow the goals that contribute to the benefit of children, young people and family life, with the following priorities:

• consolidation of organizational structure, working and developing of activities through clubs and community associations of friends of youth
• developing and strenghtening the basic values of voluntary work and creating better conditions for voluntary work in ZPMS
• creating equal opportunities for children, young people and families in relation to the quality of their free time activities
• creating more responsiveness in society to the issues concerning children, young people and families