The Fourth R human rights education (HRE) program was co-founded by two college students in Atlanta, with the support of Amnesty International USA.
- Swetha Krishnakumar is a third-year student at Georgia Tech, and long-time human rights advocate.
- Jacqueline Crowther, a senior at Georgia State University, has also spent several years promoting and protecting human rights and social justice.
Our Mission
We aim to educate students about human rights and rights issues, and empower them to be active and informed citizens of the world so that future generations are committed to public service and capable of confronting major social problems.
Our program reaches out to local schools to offer presentations, workshops and/or weekly lessons to students on a number of topics relating to human rights and service learning. Topics for our lessons, presentations and workshops have included:
- Human Rights 101
- Children’s Rights
- Rights and Responsibilities: Promoting and Protecting Human Rights in Our Community
- Climate Wrongs and Human Rights: Global Warming’s Impact on the World’s Poor
- Service Learning for Kids
Besides providing a general introduction to human rights and engaging discussions on human rights issues, our program builds an appreciation for diversity, helps students develop a standard of justice, and fosters a sense of individual responsibility.We incorporate various media into our lessons, making them more engaging, and giving students a glimpse at other cultures and perspectives. Students are encouraged to share their ideas while showing respect for the opinions of others in order to foster a safe atmosphere for discussion.
Our presentations can be adapted for students of all ages and group sizes, and can be customized to effectively address the principles of human rights in general or a particular human rights issue. Our work can be done in classrooms, after-school programs, and community centers. The Pilot Program
Swetha began the program in 2008 by reaching out to local schools with a human rights curriculum she had created and hoped to bring to students throughout the city. Faculty at Centennial Place Elementary were enthusiastic about her program, and shortly thereafter, she began implementation of the curriculum in Ms. Searls' three social studies classes -- reaching over 50 students in total.
Just weeks into the new program, she was joined by Jacqueline. Together they continued designing lesson plans, customizing them to make them relevant to the students and in line with state learning objectives. Working with the Social Studies teach, Ms. Searls, they were able to produce engaging and enlightening lessons which encouraged the students to think critically about things happening in the world, such as national elections, natural disasters and the economic crisis. This provided an opportunity for students to relate human rights to their own lives and beliefs. We also wanted to give students a global human rights perspective; teaching them 
about the lives of children and people around the world. By showing them the current struggles facing others around the world, we were able to introduce a diversity of lifestyles and livelihoods while reminding them of our core similarity -- humanity. Exposing students to issues affecting them and others around the world opened their eyes to what was going on around them. By the end of our first year, students were telling US about human rights issues that were concerning them!
Ms. Swetha and Ms. Jackie, as the students call them, continue to give lessons at CPE, and are deeply grateful for the continued enthusiasm and support of the school.
CONTACT US:
Have questions about our program? Interested in implementing HRE into your class curriculum? Want to host a human rights presentation at your school? Would you like to join our corps of volunteer facilitators and give human rights lessons for semester?
Send us an e-mail at: hrefourthr@gmail.com
CONTACT US:
Have questions about our program? Interested in implementing HRE into your class curriculum? Want to host a human rights presentation at your school? Would you like to join our corps of volunteer facilitators and give human rights lessons for semester?
Send us an e-mail at: hrefourthr@gmail.com
