Sad Statistics on Sanitation, released on UN World Toilet Day

Today has been declared World Toilet Day by the UN. The aim is to highlight the lack of access to proper sanitation faced by many around the world. As the UN's website states:

"While a vast majority of the world's population has access to mobile phones, one third of humanity (2.5 billion people) do not have access to proper sanitation, including toilets or latrines... The lack of improved sanitation largely contributes to the fact that almost 2,000 children die every day from preventable diarrhoeal diseases...Lack of private toilets in schools is a major reason why girls do not continue their education once they enter puberty." 

The South African organisation, Equal Education, today released the results of their audit of sanitation at secondary schools in Tembisa, in Gauteng. Here are some of their findings:

• At over half of the schools surveyed, it is commonplace for more than 100 boys or 100 girls to have to share a single working toilet.
• In some schools, there are days where there are no functioning toilets for students to use.
• No students reported having regular access to toilet paper or soap.
• Many schools have broken or non-functioning taps; sometimes there is no water supply.  
• Long lines at bathrooms keep students from class and bad smells from nearby toilets distract them in class.
• One student said, “My dignity is not there anymore because of the dirty toilet I have to go to every day.”  

Equal Education has presented the findings of their audit to the education authorities in the area and has asked them to release a timeline for developing a plan to address the crisis. You can read Equal Education's full press release, with more details about both the findings, and ideas of what the plan should include, here, and also more about their sanitation campaign in general, here.

Equal Education has also produced infographics, based on their findings, which I have downloaded them from their facebook page to share them with you:

 
I would definitely recommend following Equal Education, either on facebook or twitter to keep up with their news. I had the opportunity to attend Public Hearings, held by Equal Education, in Cape Town, earlier this year. I wish there could be more organisations like this, advocating for quality, and equality, in education systems for children.

Thank you, Equal Education, for drawing our attention to this sad, and pressing issue on UN World Toilet Day. Wishing you much success in achieving improved access to sanitation for these students.

Looking for Shoe Boxes for Children in Romania!

Have you heard of shoe boxes for Christmas? Some charities ask people to put gifts in a shoe box, and mark whether it is suitable for a boy or a girl, and for which age group. The shoe boxes are then often wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper. These are then distributed to children living in poverty, at Christmas time. Two of the most well-known Shoe Box projects in the UK, are Operation Christmas Child and Smile International's scheme. There is a lot of information on their websites about how these sorts of projects work.

A kindergarten teacher, called Diana, who works with very poor children in Romania, has asked me if I can help find a project which would be willing to donate shoe boxes for her to distribute to the children she works with. Her school is in a place called Tarlungeni, in the county of Brasov, in Romania. I have visited Tarlungeni many times, as my own charity, CHW, supports projects there. There is a lot of poverty in Tarlungeni. Last year, Diana was able to give some presents to the children and it was very much appreciated.

If anyone can help with this, please could you leave a comment below, or, if you prefer to get in touch another way, all my details are in the "about" section of the blog. Thank you so much!

Really hoping to get some shoe boxes of presents sent to the children in Tarlungeni!

Meeting with Diana (right) last week, when she came to London, with a group of educators
from Brasov, doing an exchange scheme arranged by a London Borough Equality Council.

A photo I took in Tarlungeni, one winter.

If I get permission, I will try to share some photos of the children Diana works with too.

Why children benefit from volunteering

Following on from a post I wrote last week, about the value of volunteers, I would like to focus on how valuable volunteering can be for children.

Children are as much a part of this world as adults are. Volunteering can give them the opportunity to learn about important issues and give them a chance to do something to help solve problems in the world. This can really be seen in this video, by Youth Service America, where third graders had learned about childhood hunger:

As well as this, volunteering means children can meet new people across the generations and can learn new skills.

Children and teenagers have volunteered for my own charity, CHW, and seem to really enjoy being part of this. High School can be a difficult time, and one teenager remarked to me after a fundraising event, "It was really nice to feel wanted, for once." Volunteering offers an inclusive, welcoming atmosphere.

Younger children have also helped with CHW, usually coming to volunteer at an event, along with their Mum or Dad. They have been happy to be involved, and like it even more once they know a bit about the cause. Volunteering can be a way for children to participate in community life. It also helps them to become more responsible citizens.

Some very young volunteers (whom I haven't actually met!) recorded a song for CHW. They were supervised by one of our volunteers in Wales, who wrote the song. He put an article in a local paper about this, which you can see here. It ends with a nice quote from one of the children about how they felt, helping other children who were less fortunate.

Here is the video, with the song recorded by the children:

I have personally seen some of the benefits of involving children and young people in volunteering. My own little cousin was not quite a teenager when I started CHW and she always wanted to help at the fundraising events. She seemed to really enjoy working with volunteers of all ages, to make the day a success. She also learned about the issues facing children around the world at a young age. She still helps out now, and I am very grateful for this!


There are some ideas for how children can volunteer, according to their age group, on this site.
If you have any good ideas for more ways children and teenagers can volunteer, please let me know in the comment section below!

What do you think about children volunteering? It would be great to hear your thoughts on this.

Why children and adults should work together...

A quote from a teenager, addressed to the adults at Eurochild's Annual Conference:

"You have more experience and we have new ideas. It is an ideal combination!"

Do you have any examples of where children and adults have worked together on a project, or to achieve a goal? Or, do you have any ideas on ways that children and adults could do this?

Visiting a Children's Council in Milan

Here are some photos from my visit to a school in Milan yesterday, which has a Student Council. The idea expanded, first to other schools in the area, and then to the district level. There is now a Children's Council for the district, and as this worked well, there will soon be Children's Councils established in all nine districts of Milan. The children explained their roles as delegates of the Council, and it was so great to see their enthusiasm!

The visit was arranged as part of the Annual Eurochild Conference.

A Quick Update from Eurochild's Annual Conference

Here is a photo of two members of  Cyprus Children's Parliament giving a presentation yesterday, at Eurochild's Annual Conference:

This morning, all attendees of the conference will go to a study visit. Mine will be to the Milan Municipality to hear about their project to develop Children Councils in the nine districts of the city.

I wanted to tweet updates from the conference but my connection just would not cooperate yesterday! I'll try again today (from: @_Catti). Other people did not seem to have the same problem and were able to tweet, and you can follow the conference on twitter via the hashtag: #ac2013milan. 

I will write more fully about some of the great ideas I have heard so far, about protecting and promoting the child's right to participation, once I have a more reliable connection!

Got to Milan... now in search of Children's Ombudspersons!

I have reached Milan, after a 4 am start today! I will soon make my way to the registration for the Annual Euochild Conference. I have seen on the Conference's website that the Ombudspersons for Children from various countries are attending!

An Ombudsperson for Children is an independent institution which defends children's rights and acts as a champion for children.

I am particularly interested in the role and function of Ombudspersons for Children, as I spent some time earlier this year doing research for a Cape Town children's rights organisation, called Molo Songololo. I helped to develop part of their advocacy document, calling for South Africa to establish an Ombudsperson for Children. They recently held a Roundtable discussion on this.

Given my research, it would be great to have the chance to hear about the work of Ombudspersons for Children firsthand, here in Europe. I am looking forward to the start of the Conference!