The plot is simple. A 13-year old girl is asked by her father to collect water. On the way, she meets a man who offers her free water and food. This sounds too good to be true, and it is.
This week we are taking action for girls and women by celebrating the Global Campaign on Education’s Global Action Week on Girls and Women’s Education.
Wednesday morning, 10.30am: the unmistakeable bee-hive shrieks from the playground reach my ears even before I turn the corner. As I enter the gates and cross the tarmac to the school, I weave through animated games of tag, clapping, the odd near-fight averted by supervising teaching assistants in fluorescent jackets, and rushed but friendly cries of “Hello Rachel!” as I’m spotted by some of the 56 students I’m working this term.
People like Eglantyne Jebb the founder of Save the Children continue to inspire thousands of people to take care of children. Visiting her grave to pay my respects was a dear wish that finally came true on the 24th of September when I visited Geneva to attend the 55th Session of the UNCRC Committee reviewing Sri Lanka State Report.
Sri Lanka has been celebrating ‘Children’s Day’ on the 1st of October for over a decade. But often, the day is a reason to organise fun and games for a section of our child population which is 6 million. How can we celebrate children’s right to be children, on this day?
Here in Melbourne, Save the Children Australia is playing a very active part in the UN DPI/NGO conference on global health. Today Jasmine Whitbread and I took part in a discussion about the Millennium Development Goals and lessons learned for any targets which might apply after 2015.
Last week, I was invited to speak at Chatham House, the London foreign affairs thinktank, looking at the way in which HIV became a global health concern, with attention from the UN, the G8 and donors that has outstripped so many other development topics.
With 24 young people from Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam crowded into a room the energy was palpable.
As I entered the conference room, I saw one group working together to create a performance piece on the resilience of children.
Given just 20 minutes, and despite an inability to communicate fluently with each other, they produced a fabulous short story which then led into a discussion on the dignity of children.
The children’s stories in their exact words jump out from the page and it really hits home that children are suffering in so many ways all around the world.
