YWCA-YMCA- Week of Prayer: A Swadhina presentation on the theme of ‘Children and the Message of Hope’

On 14^th of November 2015, Swadhina was invited to make a presentation on the issue of Hope in the social context. 14^th November being Children’s Day in India, the theme was on Children. 9 members from Swadhina team, including 3 children gave a wonderful presentation on the theme of ‘Children and the message of Hope’. The presentation included reading presentations, interspersed with rendering of songs. The programme was highly appreciated.

 Here is the print of the presentation that we did that day:

Introduction: Children are the gift of God to mankind. It is through children that we pass on our heritage; it is through children that we build our future. But it is equally distressing is the fact that today children are perhaps the most vulnerable community. Be it war, poverty, hunger or trafficking – it is children who are the prime victims.

Speaker 1: One of the biggest and shameful menace that exists today is the issue of Child Labour. Just consider these facts:

An estimated 246 million children are engaged in child labour. Nearly 70 per cent (171 million) of these children work in hazardous conditions – including working in mines, working with chemicals and pesticides in agriculture or with dangerous machinery.

Nearly 1.2 million children are trafficked, 5.7 million children are forced into debt bondage or other forms of slavery and 1.8 million children are forced into prostitution and/or pornography .

The Asia and Pacific region harbours the largest number of child workers in the 5 to 14 age group, 127.3 million in total.

(Song 1 : Talapini re)

Speaker 1: The song you just heard is the message of hope that the angels imparted to the shepherds about the birth of Chirst. Like God has always sent a message of hope during the times of distress, there is always a ray of silver lining too.

* Governments all over the world has been proactive about Child Labour laws. In India too we have strong Child Labour laws which makes it an offence to employ children below 14 years.

* There was once a tendency of employing small children as domestic help. That tendency is declining. We are now conscious of the fact that employing children for domestic work is a punishable offence.

* There have been a number of activists and organisations relentlessly working to bring forward the issue of child labour and championing their cause. Activists like Kailash Satyarthi have been successful in bringing out the distress of children involved in various industries.

* But we still have a long way to go. It is not just enough to have laws, there is a need to have a strong monitoring system to ensure that the laws are properly implemented. Especially the issue of child trafficking needs adequate attention and action.

* We, as common citizens can be messengers of hope as well. We need to be alert and aware. If ever we find children wrongfully employed, we have to be practive and report to the respective authorities.

Speaker 2: Whenever we speak about children, the first thing that comes to our mind is school. We cannot think of children without school but the reality is harsh.

One in five children, about 120 to 125 million children, are not enrolled in school. Of those who do receive an education, mostly in the developing world, one in five do not make it past the fifth grade. 

In India, the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), shows that even though the number of rural students attending schools is rising, but more than half of the students in fifth grade are unable to read a second grade text book and are not able to solve simple mathematical problems.

In the developing countries, most of the schools do not have the basic infrastructure. Most of the classes are held in open, under the trees or in inadequate rooms.

(Song 2 : Jeevan Roopi mor donga)

Speaker 2: When the times are bad, the sea is rough, we close our eyes and depend on God. We believe that he will take us to the right direction where we may find hope. In the same way, we need to be totally disheartened. There are many positive steps that are being taken to ensure that our citizens of tomorrow are not left without education.

* The Right to Education Act in India for example is a landmark act, to ensure that all the children below the age of fourteen is ensured free and compulsory education. This act has also ensured that the children from economically impoverished families too get a chance to study in good schools.

* In India there are many schemes aimed at improving the infrastructure of rural schools. As a result many schools now have new buildings including computers.

* Many schemes are also introduced whereby scholarships are offered to high school students from socio-economically backward classes. This has enabled many worthy children to go in for higher education.

* Young girls like Malala Yousufzai have stood up to guns and violence, just to prove the point that eduation is the right of every child. In India too we have noticed the trend of girls resisting forced marriages to continue their education.

* As citizens, we too have our responsibilities. If we find a poor child going to school, we can offer to buy her books, we can provide free tuitions to them. We can also support and sponsor schools run by different NGOs for poor children. We can visit rural or slum schools and offer to teach the children.

Speaker 1: As we bite into good food today, let us not forget the millions of children who go to bed hungry. There are children who fight their daily battles with hunger and poverty. Think about this:

* Poor nutrition causes nearly half (45%) of deaths in children under five – 3.1 million children each year. That is 8,500 children per day.

*  66 million primary school-age children attend classes hungry across the developing world.

* Every 10 seconds, a child dies from hunger-related diseases.

* Some 300 million children go to bed hungry every day. 

( Song 3 : Shepherd of my soul)

Speaker 1: Children are innocent souls. They depend on God whole-heartedly. Similarly they depend on us for their basic needs. Food is their basic need. It is upto us to provide them hope, to provide them their basic needs.

* The mid-day meal scheme, inspite of different criticisms, have been able to provide food to thousands of little children of impoverished families in India. It has ensured that the children have atleast one nutritious meal a day, other than their regular meal.

* Health programmes, both by the government and different NGOs have helped track severe cases of malnutrition among children and take adequate measures. Many NGOs, Government have made nutritious food supplements to address the need of malnutrition.

* As citizens we have a huge responsibility too. For one, we must stop wastage of food. There is a global campaign across the world about this issue. And we have to be active as well. Curbing extra expenditure for food during celebrations, we can offer food to the poor children instead. The huge wedding expenses on different cuisines of food can easily be replaced by a simple menu, in remembrance of millions of children who go to bed hungry.

Speaker 2: This is just tip of the ice-berg. There are many, many problems and issues. And there are solutions as well. How we approach to solve the problems is upto us. On behalf of Swadhina, we have tried to look into the problems and find solutions in our own little ways. We have carried out campaigns against child labour and the different violence and violations faced by children over the years. “I am not well” has been one such campaign booklet that we have sent across to raise awareness on the issue.

We struggled relentlessly on the issue of children’s education for past 29 years. From NFE centres to interesting primers, we have put in our bit. Currently we have held out hope for the children of rural, tribal areas in the form of pre-primary schools called ‘Good Hope Schools”.

Food security and nutrition have been one of our thrust areas. Our workers have developed the low cost alternative to health drinks in the form of ‘ Nutrimix” – made of cheap, locally available ingredients. This food supplement have successfully provided nutrition to many poor children.

These are just examples of how we can all contribute to the ray of hope. You, me, us – we have all been sent to this world with a purpose. We have all been blessed with different abilities. It is upto us as to how we can use the blessings of God, and our talents to usher in the message of Hope for all – especially the children of the world.

(Song 4 – Final Song: Stuti Aradhana)