Lausanne, November 14th, 2011

Over 3,700 school kids and members of youth groups in Switzerland will experience, on Child Rights Day (20th November), the life of children living on the streets. Most of the young itinerant salespeople or shoe shiners from here have benefited from the activities and awareness-making campaigns of Terre des hommes.

Forming over 150 groups throughout Switzerland, 3,700 boys and girls will catch the eye of passers-by when they do odd jobs on the streets: they will draw attention to the fate of the millions of children on this earth with no shelter, and appeal to your generosity. Nearly 200,000 Swiss francs went to Tdh’s programmes for protection in past years.

2,600 schoolchildren and scouts met the facilitators from Tdh so as to get to know the lot of the most disadvantaged children and the rights of the child, acknowledged by the Convention of the United Nations. “This consciousness raising is greatly appreciated: seldom more than this past year”, says Rocco R. Maglio, head of national programmes at Tdh. “Role-playing allows the youngsters to put themselves in the place of the kids who live on the streets. We bring up a basic knowledge of child rights, which schoolchildren hardly ever have a chance to deal with otherwise.” Like this, the odd jobs action does not ‘use’ the youngsters, but rather encourages a real return of educational value.

More on Tdh’s street action

To understand the situation endured by children living on the streets, Terre des hommes is also organising a national conference on “Children on the move: what protection?” to take place on Friday morning, 18th November, in Berne.

Information:
Rudolf Gafner, Spokesmen, 058 611 07 87 or 079 742 98 73, and Rocco R. Maglio, Projektmanager Action Child rights day 2, 058 611 07 12.