 Wednesday
at the Prepcom
Technology brings more voices to New York
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A delegate appears on screen during a live
video conference with children in El Salvador, Finland and
Honduras.
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New York, June 13 - Even the best laid plans have hitches sometimes
but, fortunately, having one country offline didn't prevent PLAN
International's interactive video conference on the rights of the
child from bringing the voices of children to New York.
Children in El Salvador, Finland, Honduras and Togo were involved
in the video conference together with representatives of governments,
non-governmental organizations (NGO) and delegates from various
countries attending the third Preparatory Committee meeting for
the UN General Assembly's Special Session on Children.
Video conferencing connects two or more parties with both audio
and video. With a microphone, speakers, a video camera, some software
and a communications connection like a telephone line, people can
see and speak to each other in real time.
The main concerns of children in Honduras were poverty and education
and they also asked how to ensure that children's opinions would
be taken into consideration and their needs addressed.
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Child Representative Fati-Mabel Howenou-Wawa,
12, of Togo, participates in the live video conference. A
technical hitch prevented her home country being included
in the link-up.
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"Our dreams are never achieved because of poverty," said
one participant. "Children don't have money for school supplies
so they don't go to school or they have to work instead of going
to school."
NGOs working in Honduras spoke about the need not only for resources,
but also attitude change. According to one representative, "We
need a new mentality that recognizes that children can do it and
have the ideas and solutions."
Children from El Salvador highlighted the lack of clean water
in schools and the need for bigger and better schools and for more
extensive nutrition programmes.
"Education gives us better opportunities so that we can be
more useful to our country," said one girl. "If more girls
were educated, we would progress," agreed another.
Government representatives said the problems in large part were
a result of the numerous natural disasters that have struck the
country. They acknowledged the many challenges and pointed to the
significant progress being made in setting up temporary schools,
fixing the country's water system and ensuring the mental health
of families.
The concerns of children in Finland were different and included
the need to help children deal with change, support for single parents
and recognizing the child's right to happiness. Many of the participants
were also interested in understanding and helping alleviate the
problems facing children in poor countries and the video conference
provided a good opportunity to learn about these.
Unfortunately, a technical hitch meant that children in Togo were
not able to participate. However, their representatives in New York
spoke briefly about their number one concern: child trafficking
and the difficulty in dealing with what has become a regional issue.
For PLAN International and sponsors Telefonica SA, the video conference
was a dry run for a much more ambitious project they
hope to host, a live video conference between the Special
Session and six Children's Parliaments around the world.
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