Voices of Children

“Voices of Children” highlights the key child rights issues affecting Myanmar’s children today. This in-house UNICEF Myanmar production seeks to spotlight commitments made by the Myanmar Government when signing up to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The theme of the video is what Myanmar’s current reform process means to Myanmar’s children themselves. The only words spoken throughout the video are those of children and adolescents. The video thus reinforces the importance of listening to and learning from children and adolescents in a new Myanmar. The video brings together inclusive, diverse footage from across Myanmar in an attempt to highlight the need for equity and ‘strength in diversity’ going forward.

Universal Children’s Day 2013 – children call for peace across Myanmar

 

Anna Richardson works on advocacy, communication and partnerships at UNICEF Myanmar. She was Campaign Coordinator for the launch of ‘Peace not Violence: Joining Hands Across Myanmar’ under the leadership of Campaign Director Kirsten Sjolander with the support of members of the UNICEF Myanmar advocacy and communication and child protection teams including Media Coordinator Pa Pa Khin and Child Protection Officer Khin Thiri Win.

On Saturday 23 November 2013, I was lucky enough to be a part of a show of hands against violence in Myanmar. What made this experience unique was that these were children’s hands with children’s words of peace - words like “love”, “kindness”, “understanding”. Some messages even tapped into societal issues related to violence like inter-communal relations and alcohol abuse. The words – and the children themselves – sent a strong message of non-violence, the sea of hands a striking display.