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Day of the African Child

Every year, on June 16, the network celebrates the Day of the African Child. This day commemorates the massacre of students during the 1976 protests in Soweto, South Africa, in favour of better education for all and is an opportunity for the coalitions to voice the demands of local civil society to the authorities. IDAY members commemorate this event on the theme of the right to quality education for all, focusing on the most vulnerable and neglected groups according to local priorities.

This year again, the coalitions met and organized various events: find a summary of those activities in video!

In Burkina-Faso, the coalition has chosen to lead its advocacy on the theme of environment and climate change. The day was celebrated in Kaya, Province of Sanmatenga, Centre-North Region. The themes discussed were the following:
> Strengthening the capacities of the members of the IDAY-Burkina-Faso network on advocacy, which is their first strategy of intervention;
> Contributing to the popularization of Artemisia annua in Burkina-Faso;
> Raising awareness on climate change and its consequences on the environment and human life;
> Contributing to a better knowledge of the Day of the African Child.

In Benin the celebration took place on June 26th in Tanguieta. The theme chosen by the coalition was Photovoltaic energy as a factor in improving school results in villages isolated from electrification by the conventional electricity grid in Benin. The day was followed by a General Assembly which led to the setting up of a new board of directors for a 2-year renewable mandate.

In Cameroon, the celebration took place on 25 and 26 June in the Batié district in the Western region and was based on the theme: quality education, free, compulsory and adapted to all children in Africa. The objectives were as follows:
> Raise awareness among young people in school and out of school in the Batié district on their rights in general and their right to education in particular;
> Raise awareness among young people in school and out of school on the response to the COVID 19 pandemic;
> Collect advocacy messages from young people;
> Advocate to administrative and municipal authorities for quality education in their environment;
> Commemorate the young people of Soweto in South Africa and those of the North-West, South-West and Far North in Cameroon who died during the various conflicts.

In Ghana, the theme discussed was: Ensuring access to a child-friendly justice system in Africa. The day was celebrated in Accra, the capital of Ghana. The objective was to organise a one-day online workshop to explain what the policy of inclusion is and to collect information/evidence for advocacy at the national level for the achievement of the sustainable development goals, particularly SDG4. The aim was to equip and integrate children into the child rights advocacy strategy.

In Mauritania the theme was: Humanitarian action in Africa: Children’s rights first!

The celebration took place in the commune of Teyarett (North Nouakchott).

In Niger, the coalition met in the commune of Nguigmi (Diffa region where IDAY-Niger’s activities are concentrated). The advocacy theme was the support to the schooling of young girls in rural areas in order to improve the social organization and the participation of women in local development in the commune of Nguigmi.
The proposed action essentially aimed at a broad awareness campaign in 3 primary schools in the commune. The coalition organized an information and awareness-raising workshop with the women of the region on the subject of schooling for young girls, but also worked on strengthening the organizational capacities of women’s associations in the region by equipping them with didactic and technical tools likely to help them become better involved in the democratic process, communal management and good governance as a primary focus of work.
The project made it possible to consolidate the local associative fabric through a workshop on supporting the schooling of young girls and combating school dropout, but also by working on the creation of a support platform for the schooling of girls in rural areas. The main role of this platform is to analyse the various factors that limit the schooling of young girls and encourage dropping out in order to find solutions for them, seek financial and logistical means to facilitate access to school, conduct awareness campaigns on this issue and also constitute an advocacy body towards public institutions.

In Kivu, advocacy has focused on taking children’s rights to education into account in the development of the DRC. The celebration took place in Kalemie, Tanganika Province and Uvira in South Kivu Province. Two main axes for this day:

• Approaching and holding talks with the political-administrative and educational authorities in order to encourage them to take into account the point of view of children in the national education policy.
• Raising awareness and involving local communities on the importance of the Artemisia annua as part of the prevention and treatment of malaria in order to fight against teacher and pupil absenteeism.

In Uganda, IDAY-Uganda in partnership with Uganda Children’s Centre (UCC) organized discussions on the problems faced by street children in the Ugandan justice system.

IDAY-Senegal co-organised a webinar on the theme “After COVID-19: building tomorrow’s school in Africa”, organized by Esprit Sud.
The COVID-19 crisis is putting education systems around the world on their knees and calls for a rethinking of schooling, particularly in Africa.

Information on this webinar is available here : http://esprit-sud.org/index.php/journee-de-lenfant-africain-2020/