What children can achieve when they are seen and heard

27/7/2020

As we approach our 30th year working for children’s rights, this year the UN has also marked 30 years since the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). This international treaty protects the rights of all children to be free from discrimination, violence and neglect. It has shaped our work from the start, and this year has been no exception.

One of the CRC’s guiding principles concerns the right of children to be heard. Whilst human rights apply to children as much as adults, children rarely have as much power: they can’t vote, they aren’t always included in decisions that affect them and the outdated term ‘children should be seen and not heard’ is surprisingly prevalent.

We not only exist for children who are most on the edge, but for 30 years our work has been underpinned by a focus on encouraging those children to express themselves, develop opinions, and for these opinions to be heard and taken seriously.

‘Seen and heard’ was the theme for our latest annual report as this year we have been especially struck by what children are capable of when they are given the space to express themselves, be listened to and take the lead.

A Child Council in action in Kutupalong refugee camp.

In Bangladesh, children have been connecting beyond the confines of camps and slums using digital technology. Whilst half of the Rohingya children in Kutupalong refugee camp are cut off from education, those that can access learning are denied a curriculum in their own language.

Through interviews and child councils we listened to children expressing how they cannot recognise what is being taught, and introduced a digital learning system, projecting translated, child-friendly content in every class, every day.

Students not only expressed joy and disbelief to finally be able to understand, but also used this technology to create their own video newsletters, exchanging their thoughts, talents and experiences across hundreds of classrooms in the camp and slum communities of Bangladesh.

Complete with its own website and YouTube channel, they named this emerging digital platform ‘Moja Kids'. In the coming year we aim to evolve Moja Kids as a global online community, connecting children with peers living in various challenging situations around the world.

Rohingya children recording for 'Moja Kids'.

Prime minister Aarav rescued his friend Saisha from trafficking.

In India, 200 children were elected to form Children’s Parliaments, trained about their rights, shown how to protect their friends and supported to campaign for change.

These ‘MPs’ rapidly began to lead; rescuing friends from abduction, preventing child marriages, transforming sanitation in schools and taking responsibility with frontline flood-relief work.

They have been modelling citizenship in the most inspiring ways and learned how to influence real change.

Child Rights Clubs in Uganda have more than tripled their members this year, delivering a host of workshops for hundreds of their peers.

They have grown in confidence, worked hand-in-hand with local Child Protection Teams, been a great example to children in the UK and showed they can be just as instrumental as adults in transforming their communities.