Children celebrate World Children’s Day in South Sudan
They call for every child to have the right to be a child
World Children’s Day was celebrated with much fanfare and fun-filled activities in Juba on 20th November. The day was coordinated by UNICEF Child Reporters in collaboration with the State Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Welfare (MGCSW), UNICEF and partners including Windle Trust International, Nile Sustainable Development Organization (NSDO), Plan International and Save the Children International.
The theme for this years’ World Children’s Day was the call by children to allow them to live a childhood uninterrupted from child labour, marriage, and recruitment by armed groups.
The programme kicked off early in the morning with a procession by primary students from Juba One School to the Toto Chan Compound, accompanied by the Police Band. At the Toto Chan compound, the programme was emceed by two UNICEF Child Reporters and featured many lively songs and dance routines and a stirring drama on children’s rights enacted by children.
This was followed by several activities which included painting in blue and child rights messages by children along UNICEF South Sudan’s external wall along one of Juba’s main roads; and the playing of a symbolic football match on the same street to denote the lack of playing spaces for children in South Sudan. Later, Child Reporters also got all the dignitaries to sign a petition to guarantee them the right to be children and engaged in a one-on-interaction with dignitaries about the plight of children and what the government was doing to enable them to exercise their rights to be a child.
The programme was attended by many dignitaries including Deputy Governor of the State of Central Equatoria, the State Minister of Gender, Child and Social Welfare, the acting UN Resident Coordinator, the Country Director of Plan International, the UNICEF representative and more than 100 children.
