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Gender Ministry and in collaboration with
United Nation Children Fund (UNICEF), and
other Child protections stakeholders held a
national program yesterday in Tubmanburg, Bomi
County to officially climax this year’s Day
of the African Child (DAC).
The program which closed a weeklong
celebration of DAC began last Saturday at
the Antoinette Tubman Stadium (ATS). This
year’s celebration was done under a global
theme of “African Orphans: Our Collective
Responsibility” and a national theme, “Our
Children: Our Responsibility.”
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Vabah Gayflor - Gender Minister |
The theme provides excellent opportunities
both for social mobilization of communities
as well as advocacy on Child protection,
HIV/AIDS, and partnership for child rights
promotion. The Day of the African Child also
draws attention to the lives of African
Children today.
Activities marking this year’s DAC in
Liberia were designed to promote and create
awareness about the shared responsibility
for the care and protection of the Children
of Liberia, especially those who have become
orphans or made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS.
Yesterday’s activities in Tubmanburg
brought together several youth football and
kickball teams including Junior and Senior
High Schools in the area.
Gender Minister Varbah Gayflor urged
Liberians to use this year’s ADC celebration
to reflect on the difficulties facing the
country’s Children and to take actions that
will help young people dream of a brighter
future.
“I want to thank Firestorm and other
partners for their support to the DAC
celebration but we think it’s also about
time that we all begin to take a positive
action to assure our Children of the joyful
future they deserve,” Minister Gayflor said.
Earlier UNICEF Country Representative
Angela Kearney said, “While we whole
heartedly support every Child’s right to
play, what’s really special about the
Sporting event is that Children received
HIV/AIDS education and prevention massage,
both through the event of the Day of the
African Child.
“Liberia families across the country are
caring for HIV/AIDS orphans, and welcoming
them into their families, but we need to
work with our partners in building effective
community responses to the need and rights
of children who have lost one or both
parents to HIV/AIDS,” Kearney said. “During
the Day of the African Child, it’s a time to
call for more gentleness, love, and caring
for kids in Liberia, and across the
continent.”
T he Day of the African Child marks a June
16, 1976 march in Soweto, South African,
when thousands of school children took to
the street to protest the inferior quality
of their education and were shot down; and
the two weeks of protest that followed, over
hundred of the school children who took the
courage to protest were killed, for which
the Day of the African Child has been
celebrated on 16 June every year since 1991,
when it was firstly initiated by the
Organization of African Unity (now known as
the AU).
The Day also draws attention to the lives
and needs of the African Children today. |
