My Rights through my Eyes

This November 20th marks 25 years since the world made a set of promises to all children when it adopted the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The CRC acknowledged all children as rights holders and inspired the move towards child advocacy, bringing positive change in the lives of many. Although today’s children are far more likely to survive and prosper than they would have 25 years ago, many are being marginalized and left behind.

(click on the image to view the video)

Save the Children’s founder Eglantyne Jebb, said “the only international language in the world is a child’s cry”. This anniversary is an opportunity to reinforce the global message that all children have the same rights no matter where they’re from, and these rights must always be protected, particularly when their lives are affected by poverty, displacement and disaster; quality education should be ensured at all times, and learning spaces should always be safe.

Honoring the anniversary of the CRC also means recognizing the millions of refugee children across the world including the 600,000 plus Syrian children in Lebanon.

Save the Children Lebanon has so far ensured around 80,000 refugee children’s rights to education are upheld, either within schools or in non-formal settings. We are also planning to support an additional 40,000 through education throughout 2015 and provide many more thousands of children with a range of child protection services including safe places to play and  psychological support to them and their parents. We also provide life skills training and community engagement opportunities to help ensure a generation of young people is able to play a proactive role in their societies.

As part of Save the Children’s mission to empower child advocates, under the theme ‘My Rights through my Eyes’, we embarked on a series of workshops, educating children about their rights. We asked children to voice their views on what their rights should be and to send messages through art and video to remind the world that the rights of refugee children must not be forgotten.

Continuing this theme and expanding it to include both, host and refugee communities, SCI’s field offices in Akkar, Bekaa, Tripoli and Beirut are organizing awareness recreational activities, game sessions and group discussions for children to remind them and their communities that their rights must be acknowledged and protected.