World Children’s Day.- Festivities

World Children’s Day is celebrated every year on the 20th of November, the date on which the United Nations General Assembly established the Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1959. This declaration establishes all children’s fundamental rights across the world, including the right to life, health, education, protection, and well-being. We honour this day as a reminder for people to become more conscious about children being constantly exposed to demographic alterations, and hence the most affected by global crises and challenges.

Children’s Day is also a special day that celebrates the joy and innocence of childhood. It honours achievements, but it is also a day to bring attention to the plight of the most vulnerable children, to increase awareness of children’s rights, and to emphasise the necessity of everyday work for their well-being and development. UNICEF works all year to improve the lives of children, and World Children’s Day is an important time to join this worldwide appeal for children and the most undefended. Parents, teachers and health workers, government authorities, religious leaders, political figures, the corporate sector, civic society, and the media all play important roles in child wellbeing. It is not only to spark awareness they’re striving for but to motivate and inspire action and demeanour towards collective preservation of children’s most relevant right: the right to love and affection.

With a view on today’s celebration, this post’s aim is to bring recognition and gratitude to some of those who have contributed to turn childhood into a wellspring of life, and still do.

1. EGLANTYNE JEBB  changed the course of history when she asserted that all children should have rights. After witnessing children starving in Austria and Germany in the aftermath of World War I, Eglantyne Jebb, established the SAVE THE WORLD Fund to seek funds to assist them. The League of Nations accepted the Declaration on the Rights of the Child, which was initially authored by Eglantyne Jebb.

According to the Geneva Declaration of 1924, mankind “owes to the Child the best that it has to give” and children’s fundamental needs were summed up in five points:

1. The child must be provided with the resources necessary for appropriate growth, both financially and spiritually.
2. The hungry child must be nourished; the ill child must be nursed; the backward child must be assisted; the delinquent child must be retrieved; and the orphan and the waif must be housed and cared for.
3. In times of difficulty, the child must be the first to get assistance.
4. The child must be put in a position to earn a livelihood and must be safeguarded from all forms of exploitation.
5. The child must be educated with the understanding that his or her talents must be devoted to the service of fellow men.

2. CHRISTOPHER JAMES GREICIUS is the inspiration for the largest wish-granting organisation in the world: MAKE A WISH FOUNDATION.  In 1980 he was a 7-year-old child battling leukaemia and dreaming about being a police officer. That caused an effect on his Phoenix neighbourhood who banded together to grant his request. Chris had no idea that his request would spark a movement that would change the lives of millions.

For almost 40 years, Make-A-Wish has granted life-changing wishes to children and families. Following the founding of Make-A-Wish in the United States in 1980, Make-A-Wish International was formally created in 1993 to serve five nations outside the United States – and today serves to assist children in 50 countries across six continents through its 40 Affiliates.

The Make-a-Wish Foundation is committed to granting sick children’s desires. The desires can be anything, but the most are “I wish to: go, be, meet, have, and give.” The organisation accepts recommendations for children and collaborates closely with the medical personnel involved in the child’s case to find the optimum moment to give their request. It grants wishes that frequently include youngsters meeting their heroes or experiencing something for the first time, such as riding in a fire truck.

3. HERMANN GMEINER, MARIA HOFER, JOSEF JESTL, LUDWIG KÖGEL, HERBERT PFANNER, HEDWIG WEINGARTNER decided to make a difference in the post World War era when Europe was rebuilding its physical and social infrastructure. They recognized a problem: thousands of children had lost their homes, and the infrastructure of the period offered them the option of an institutional childhood in large-scale orphanages. In 1949, these six extraordinary individuals founded the SOS CHILDREN’S VILLAGES, in Innsbruck, Austria. Under their direction, the group and its numerous volunteers pioneered an innovative style of alternative care centred on giving children with reliable, family-like ties that provided stability and a genuine sense of belonging. Over the past 70 years, the organisation has supported close to 4 million children and young people through a wide and ever-changing range of programmes that are adapted to contextual and cultural needs. 

4. “HOLY LAND CHRISTIAN MISSION” today known as CHILDREN INTERNATIONAL was founded in 1936. The group supplied food baskets to widows and disadvantaged families, offered early childhood education in Bethlehem and Jerusalem, and ran a small medical clinic and orphanage. Over the last 80 years, the organisation assisted young adults to graduate from their program healthy, educated, empowered, and employed, allowing them to break the cycle of poverty. Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Mexico, the Philippines, the United States, and Zambia are among the nations where the organisation operates.

5. MICHAEL JACKSON established the “HEAL THE WORLD FOUNDATION in 1992 as a humanitarian organisation to help children and the environment. Its objectives included providing medicine for children as well as combating global famine, drug and alcohol misuse, and child maltreatment. The group created playgrounds, administered vaccines, and supported a wide range of children’s problems across the world. It aided in the funding of a life-saving liver transplant for a Hungarian kid and co-sponsored an airlift of more than 46 tons of humanitarian goods to war-torn Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992. Despite doling out over 5 million dollars in its first five years, since April 2002, the foundation has been suspended in California for failing to file yearly statements required of tax-exempt entities. What remains though, is Michael Jackson’s legacy and inspirational force: “Every Day, Create Your History. Every Page You Turn, You’re Writing Your Legacy. Every Hero Dreams Of Chivalry. Every Child Should Sing Together In Harmony.” – Michael Jackson, History

6. TORTELL POLTRONA on 23rd of February 1993 founded  PAYASOS SIN FRONTERAS (Clowns Without Borders International). As Tortell puts it “A day without laughter is a wasted day, and humour fosters tolerance”. The clowns are artists who volunteer to cheer on the tiny refugees who live in crisis zones or in areas with few resources. Their work promotes principles such as solidarity, empathy, and humanitarian relief.

Laughter. Exciting smiles. Jokes and creative abilities that amaze and serve to alter the tough position in which many minors find themselves as a result of war or natural calamities. 

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