CONTACT FOR MEDIA

CONTACT FOR MEDIA

PRESS RELEASE

PRESS RELEASE

OFFICIAL STATEMENT

OFFICIAL STATEMENT

 

UNICEF and child messengers of peace

Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, 19 July 2007 – UNICEF, in partnership with the Ministry of Education and the Scouts Movement of Côte d’Ivoire, is organizing a grand meeting of all Peace Messenger Clubs from 19 to 23 July 2007 in Yamoussoukro. The objective of this massive gathering, which will bring together 105 children aged 7 - 14 years from all regions of the country, is to promote activities in favour of peace and reconciliation carried out by child messengers of peace in their communities and in schools.

The “Child Messengers of Peace” project, developed by UNICEF, the Ministry of Education and the Catholic Scouts Association of Côte d’Ivoire (ASCCI), aims to promote among education actors and the general public, the values of peace and tolerance by organizing educational sessions within communities and creating peace messenger clubs in 200 primary schools across the entire national territory.

Indeed, in order to contribute, through children, to the restoration of social cohesion, the Ministry of Education, with the support of UNICEF, initiated in 2003 a Peace and Tolerance Education Programme (PTEP) taught in schools to get pupils, teachers, parents and their communities to serve as ambassadors of peace.

The PTEP has entered its active phase through two projects: “School, a Conducive Environment for Peace and Tolerance” and “Child Messengers of Peace”, which made it possible to train, from the beginning of the 2006/2007 academic year, 422 teachers-supervisors and 2,000 child messengers of peace in 200 schools.

After organizing activities in schools and communities, this grand meeting of all peace messenger clubs, organized from 19 to 23 July 2007 in Yamoussoukro, offered children the opportunity to sensitize policy-makers, administrative authorities, community and religious leaders on the reunification of the country as well as the restoration of a single and good quality educational system on the entire national territory.

This meeting, a great moment of advocacy for child messengers of peace, illustrates the desire of UNICEF and the Ministry of Education to work to provide quality education to all children in an atmosphere of peace and tolerance.

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About UNICEF
UNICEF is operating in the field in more than 150 countries and territories worldwide to help children to survive and develop, from their tender age up to the end of the adolescent age. As the world’s leading supplier of vaccines to developing countries, UNICEF supports the health and nutrition of children, their access to water and sanitation facilities, quality basic education for all boys and girls and protection of children against violence, all forms of exploitation and AIDS. UNICEF is fully funded through voluntary contributions from individuals, enterprises, foundations and governments.

For further information, please contact:
Alexandra Westerbeek, Chief Communication, UNICEF Côte d’Ivoire. 
05572178 / 2121 1812  awesterbeek@unicef.org

Chrystel Trazié-Menan, Communication Assistant, UNICEF Côte d’Ivoire.
06251581/ 2121 8214  ctrazie@unicef.org