Stanley and friends inspired by Ugandan Child Rights Clubs

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10-year-old Stanley Wilkes visited Uganda last month on behalf of Jessie Younghusband school student council. He spent time with the inspirational ‘Child Rights Clubs’ we support here, who are changing their communities in the slums surrounding Jinja. Now he is back in Chichester, exploring with his friends how they can put what he’s learnt into practice.  

Stanley is a member of his student council at Jessie Younghusband primary school in Chichester, and his Dad Ben works for Children on the Edge. They travelled to Uganda at the end of October to find out exactly how Ugandan Child Rights Clubs have made such a difference and what he could learn to inspire his own Student Council at home in Chichester.
 
Soon after arriving in Jinja, Stanley went along to Loco Child Rights Club meeting, asking questions on behalf of the student council and hearing members explain about how they’ve succeeded in getting children into school, stopping abuse, and cleaning up the community. He also attended a Child Rights Club workshop in Wandago, where the club presented to over 100 children from the local primary school, teaching them all about their rights and responsibilities.
 
Stanley says “The children go home and tell their parents about what they’ve learnt, which changes things, but they also teach other children by running their own workshops and talking to them around the community, which works really well. It seems like children learn from other children, who are slightly older, a bit better sometimes, and they find them easier to talk to as well”.

Stanley also conducted a series of one-on-one interviews with children from both areas about what makes them feel safe in their communities. He described how “The children here have to deal with loads of things that we don’t often have to, and sometimes when they go to adults to talk about making a change, the adults have an angry response to them, but they just keep going!”

Stanley has recently presented his findings at a full school assembly, but the plans are just getting going. He has already fed back to the council and has ideas about litter picks, teaching about child rights, writing to local government about the environment and doing a poster campaign.
 
Paul Neaves, Deputy Headteacher from Jessie Younghusband says “We’re looking forward to the School Council putting into practice what Stanley has learnt in Uganda and leading an assembly about the rights of the child in the new year. They will also be inviting children to come and find the School Council at Surgeries and then putting together small working parties to tackle problems as they arise”.

Other local schools have already expressed an interest in taking Jessie Younghusband’s lead and implementing some of the ideas from Uganda, so the achievements of the Jinja Child Rights Clubs are set to have international influence.
 
Naturally no trip would be complete without a few good games of football, which was one of Stanley’s highlights. He says “I really liked playing with the children, it’s no different to playing with friends at home. They don’t play video games, but apart from that it was the same. I feel like the world sees a lot of people in poorer countries as gloomy and isolated, but they’re not, they’re enjoying life. The main thing I can learn from them is that they believe in what they do, and they don’t let anything get in the way”. 

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