Millions know Raffi for his work as a children’s entertainer.

But he’s so much more. In addition to his inspiring music (including a new children’s CD called Love Bug), Raffi is doing some powerful work with the organization Centre for Child Honouring, which he founded.

So listen up (hear him sing to us!) to this Green Divas Radio Show episode then read on for more (be sure scroll down to listen to Raffi’s song Sustainability in full!)…

Take Action: Sign the Plea to Faith Leaders to protect children from violence.

Note from Raffi: The Inspiration Behind Centre for Child Honouring

Respect for the child as a whole person was the core value during my music career. After decades of inquiry into what children need to prosper, my work has evolved into a vision of a world that would respect its young.

In recent years I have developed and communicated, in word and song, an integrated philosophy called Child Honouring. A comprehensive meta-framework for societal transformation connecting person, culture and planet.

As I’ve outlined in settings such as Harvard, the World Bank, Parliament Hill in Ottawa, and the New York Academy of Medicine, we find across all cultures an essential humanity visible in early years, a formative intelligence that shapes lifelong learning and behaviour.

The child, as humanity’s primary learning system, deserves priority support.

Our young are the ones most vulnerable to the crises of our times.

Child Honouring is both a way of life and a holistic organizing principle for healing communities and restoring ecosystems – for redesigning the whole of society for the greatest good, with the child in mind. Child Honouring is the children-first way of sustainability.

At this pivotal point in history, we face a choice: planetary peril and societal breakdown, or a breakthrough to fundamentally new life-affirming systems in every sector. The global financial meltdown is the precise moment for a bold systems shift to sustainability: social, fiscal, and environmental.

As a compassionate revolution in values, Child Honouring has three core tenets:

The early years are the most important – early childhood is the gateway to humane being.

We face unprecedented social and planetary crises – a state of emergency that most endangers the very young, and that requires a remedy of equal scale.

Our survival as a species requires a systemic response of detoxifying the personal, cultural and planetary environments that make up the world of the child.

Advancing Child Honouring as a universal ethic will give children of every culture the best chance to become self-aware, compassionate, productive citizens. It will nurture the community of nations for generations.

~ Raffi Cavoukian, C.M., O.B.C.
Founder and Chair, Centre for Child Honouring

Watch the Covenant for Honouring Children video…