"International Day of Street Children, Our right is to be happy in a family that cares for us and loves us. Fun, health, feeding, games, happiness, protection, health, family, safety, education, not working"
The 12th of April marked the 5th year of the International Day of Street Children, a day intended to give street children all over the globe a platform to have their voices heard. As one focus of JUCONI's work is to combat child labour in Guayaquil (with the other main focus being to reduce domestic violence and improve attachment styles within families) our director, Martha Espinoza, wanted us to do something to celebrate the day.
As it happened, this date fell very close to the planned day of the pop-up exhibition with the kids from our old group, now closed, in Nueva Prosperina, so Emily and I decided to double up the celebrations and incorporate the International Day of Street Children into the carnival cart by creating the windscreen panel in the photograph above which lists some of the human rights that children are entitled to.
Because we shut down this group back in February, Emily and I were not sure which, if any of the children would come, so were overjoyed when the children started to appear. We saw about half of the children from our old groups and had a brilliant time painting one another's faces (the kids loved painting we facilitators and making us look as silly as possible!) and looking back over their work. Some kids also played hula hoop and football, and they loved dressing up in the wings and headscarves that Emily and I had prepared for them in the office, flapping them vigorously and pretending to fly. We were also really pleased to welcome the mum and older sister of 3 siblings that have come regularly to Art Club since May of last year, and to see them admiring the work on display.
As well as marking an important date and everyone having a really brilliant time, Emily and I also felt reassured by having effectively had a run-through of the set up of the pop-up exhibition on a small scale, and now feel prepared for and confident about the upcoming events in Sergio Toral and Socio Vivienda.
To see a gallery of photos that include the children see the cmap blog or the cmap Facebook page.
No comments:
Post a Comment