Women & Learners Rights
The I Am SAM Poem: Ako Ay Mahalaga, Naiiba at Natatangi (2012)
It corresponds to the flagship program of IAMSAM: The IAMSAM PEP (Prevent-to-Empower Protocol). I wrote it in English and it was translated into Filipino by Maricar Valencia-Flores, the first IAMSAM Mentor Director for Rights Respecting Schools.
Merci Melchor once said, “Nothing justifies the abuse of women, mothers, and children. It must stop.”
Project Stop Abuse Mom, led by its main proponent Melissa Lim, was entrusted with the I AM S.A.M. Founder’s Merci Melchor for Battered Women brochures in 2004.
Rayla was invited to speak at the UNICEF UK Conference for Rights Respecting Schools in London, UK on November 2 -3, 2011. She has trail blazed to create a model of the 1st UNICEF Rights Respecting School* outside UK and the first in the East. This achievement was cited in the conference.
At the heart of Project For Every Child are the tender, powerful drawings of Momcie/Merci Melchor — the 9 Pertinent Rights of the Child based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Drawn with love, simplicity, and deep moral clarity, these illustrations make children’s rights visible, understandable, and deeply human.
