Zambian children promote their rights
Children and adults belonging to a community group in Nameembo, southern Zambia, made sure their whole community got involved when promoting children’s rights.
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| Day of the African Child celebrations |
 | The group – called the Child Rights Campaigners – brought together children’s groups, village heads and teachers to help organise an event for the national Day of the African Child, persuading people to donate food and drinks, transport, use of a venue, free entertainment and help with the cooking.
Group member Renox Ngandu said; “With the many cases of violence against children in Nameembo, we all agreed to use the event to bring together parents and children to talk about these issues and be reminded of child rights. Rape and beatings, particularly of orphaned children, are common in our community.”
He continued; “Plan has supported us with training in child rights and in other areas, but now we can manage community initiatives ourselves.”
The Day of the African Child takes place annually and saw other children’s rights activities take place in other provinces.
In Mazabuka, children and adults organised a march to their local council office, which resulted in the formation of a district committee, consisting of schools, parents and government ministers, to oversee children’s rights.
Whereas, in the capital Lusaka, Plan supported a National Children’s Summit which brought together 45 children from the country’s nine provinces, who then put together a resolution to end violence against them, which they presented to the Zambian president.
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