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There are about 2.2 billion children around the world. Most of them live in safe environments with their parents and go to school everyday. But sadly many children are still driven from their home or do not have access to basic needs such as clean water. For the past years pictures from Syria among other countries have been
spread all over the Internet with the message that some of the most innocent people – the children – are the ones that are suffering the most. November the 20th was the Universal Children’s Day. A day for the marking of children’s rights. Every year organizations all around the world celebrate and mark this day in their special way and this year was no exception.
Tiny stories
As one of the most influential organizations UNICEF chose to create attention around this day by asking well-known authors from all around the world to write tiny stories about children. More than 200 authors contributed to the campaign and shared their take on this theme. The stories varied from fairytales to resembling poems. With the hashtag #foreverychild UNICEF further encouraged people on Facebook to write their own tiny stories and share them. Among the authors were Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho and Shahla Latifi from Afghanistan. You can read the tiny stories online on UNICEF’s webpage (https://www.unicef.org/tinystories/)
As the youngest contributor the 8-year old Michelle Nkamankeng from South Africa wrote the story “My dream for every child”:
My dream for every child is for them to want to dream to achieve the talent they are good at.
And I wish every child can go to school because education is important.
And I wish for every child a peaceful home, and when a child is sick I wish a person can take care of him/her.
And I wish every child can have fun with no wars and that all the children who don’t have blankets, socks, jerseys could keep warm.
And I wish every child who wants to write a book does not go off-track.
And I wish every child can feel safe at home and outdoors, and I don’t want anyone to be harmed.
And I want every child to inspire others with their talents and to be themselves without showing off.
Stop Violence Against Children
As another worldwide organization Save the Children marked the Universal Children’s Day by starting a big campaign with the title Stop Violence Against Children. Untold violence against children is a big problem and every year millions of children become victims of it. We see cases in the home, in schools, at work and many
other places. On November the 21st they had an event that created awareness on this and showed how Save the Children work with this problem.
A long way to go
The Universal Children’s Day dates back to 1954 when the General Assembly recommended that all countries had a day reserved for focusing on children worldwide. Furthermore the date marks the day for the adoption of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child 1959. Many things have happened since then and great changes have been made. Never have so many children had access to drinking water as today. Since 1990 the number of children dying before the age of 5 has fallen from 12.5 millions to 5.9 millions. But we still have a long way to go in terms of many things. Today around 28 million children are put to flight from their home because of conflicts and violence. In 2015 half of the world’s refugees were children primary from Afghanistan and Syria.
For further information:
- Save the Children: http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.7869959/k.5C54/Universal_Childrens_Day.htm
- United Nations: http://www.un.org/en/events/childrenday/
