WORLD CHILDREN’S DAY November 20th

WORLD CHILDREN’S DAY November 20th

WORLD CHILDREN’S DAY
Each year on November 20th, World Children’s Day promotes the welfare of children around the world. The day also spreads awareness for issues that children face and celebrates international togetherness.
Human rights don’t just apply to adults. They apply to children as well. Children deserve the right to life, health, education, and even the right to play. Additionally, children’s rights include the right to family life, protection from violence, and not to be discriminated against. The child also has the right to their views to be heard.

Unfortunately, children around the world face many challenging issues. According to Children Incorporated, 385 million children around the world live in poverty. One in four children lives in poverty in the world’s richest countries. An estimated 8,500 children a day die from malnutrition.

Besides poverty, other significant issues children around the world face include:

Violence through indoctrination
Life as refugees
Lack of education
Neglect
Child labor
Child prostitution and human trafficking
Internet child pornography
Children have a difficult world in which to navigate. It helps to have loving parents or other family members to help them guide the way. Unfortunately, there are millions of children who do not have someone like this in their life. According to UNICEF, 153 million children across the globe are orphans.
What can be done to give children hope? To help their world become a better place? Having World Children’s Day helps as it spreads awareness of the many issues facing children. It also forces leaders to come up with solutions to help some of our world’s most vulnerable individuals.
HOW TO OBSERVE #WorldChildrensDay
Many people come together to celebrate this day. This includes teachers, healthcare professionals, government leaders, civil society activists, mothers, fathers, media professionals, and religious leaders. These people play an important role to make this day relevant to their communities and countries. Children also celebrate the day by taking over roles in media, politics, and entertainment to highlight issues important to them. Many landmark buildings light up blue to show their support for child rights.

To participate:

Pay off some lunch accounts for children in your local school
Do something fun with your children like taking them to the zoo or a movie
Ask your children what issues are important to them
Donate to an organization, such as UNICEF, that helps children in need
Find a way for your child to forge a pen pal partnership
Volunteer for the nursery or youth ministry in your church
Help a child in need in any way you can
Wear blue to show support for child rights
No matter what you do, share on social media to help spread awareness with #WorldChildrensDay

WORLD CHILDREN’S DAY HISTORY
On December 14th, 1954 the United Nations General Assembly recommended all countries institute a Universal Children’s Day. This day later became known as World Children’s Day. On November 20th, 1959, the UN adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child. On November 20th, 1989, the UN held the Convention on the Rights of the Child. During the Convention, the specific rights of children were proclaimed. This Convention was the most widely ratified international human rights treaty in history.