Thousands of children on the streets of Switzerland to protest against exploitation

Published by Jakub Adamkiewicz

For the International Day of Child Rights, November 20th, Terre des hommes is setting up - for the 15th consecutive year - a national operation to make people more aware of the exploitation from which some 200 million children suffer throughout the world.

Between November 19th and 21st, in more than 100 locations in 23 cantons, over 4000 schoolchildren will be taking part in the action at information booths and also by shining shoes, washing car windscreens or showing their artistic talent. The purpose? To alert passers-by to the misery of millions of children who work under intolerable conditions in mines, quarries, in the fields, or who are sold to work as domestic slaves.

2400 schoolchildren have already had a visit from the Terre des hommes' coordinators who show them, via role playing, the issues of child exploitation; a pedagogic step which makes them aware of the situation, reminds them of the terms of the Convention of Child Rights adopted by the UNO on the 20th November 1989, and makes them messengers.

"The super engagement of the young participants in the past 15 years encourages us to renew the action each time", emphasises Evi Walzer, who coordinates the Day of Child Rights at Tdh.

An event that concerns us all

The weekend of November 23rd and 24th will be dedicated to the volunteer groups of Tdh who are organising the sale of bio-organic and fair-trade certified chocolate bars produced at the Schoenenberger factory in Lucerne.

The entire proceeds of these sales will go towards Terre des hommes' work to get decent working conditions, access to health care and schooling for 130,000 exploited children in some dozen countries.
A concrete solution: Going back to school

You can find out about the careers of refugee children from Mali and the ?little maids' from Mauritania who, despite their really difficult situations, managed to get back to school thanks to the work of Tdh.

Ada, a young Malian refugee, tells us about his new life in camps. Anara, a Malian refugee and a teacher, describes his story and his happiness to share his knowledge with little refugees from Burkina Faso.