São Paulo – A Sudanese should become better known in Brazilian schools this year. The World of Children Awards Foundation, an international organisation, promotes a competition to choose personalities that work for children of the world each year. Children and youths from 94 countries, including Brazil, vote. Among those running up this year is the Sudanese James Aguer, who fights for the preservation of children’s rights in his country, in North Africa.
Apart from James, there are candidates from Pakistan, Nepal, Canada, Burundi, Ethiopia, Thailand, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, Cambodia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. For some 20 years, the Sudanese has been fighting for the liberation of children enslaved in his country. He has already freed 3,000 kids, mostly among his people, the Dinka, and was arrested 33 times. Nowadays James works for an organisation sponsored by the government of Sudan that fights against slavery.
This year’s edition of the World of Children Award is special, as it will choose the hero of the decade. All candidates – 13 in total – were honoured in previous years, according to information supplied by the coordinator of the Foundation in Brazil, Christiane Sampaio, who is based in Minas Gerais. The award has a higher objective – the discussion of children’s rights and is geared at providing them a more active voice in the construction of society. It involves, according to Christiane, 150,000 schools and 22 million children worldwide.
Children may participate individually, but the goal, according to the coordinator, is for them to participate in groups. Schools must register to make part of the network of friends of the award. From then, the World of Children Award Foundation gets in contact with the school and sends material to help in the election process.
The foundation suggests that the ballot be preceded by some activities, like the discussion of the rights of children in the group, the situation of the rights of children worldwide and the presentation of those running for the award. For this reason, the foundation site and the magazine, The Globe, serve as subsidies. Children themselves, therefore, should organize the ballot at their schools. The result may be transferred by electronic ballot, on the site or by fax. "It is also training in democracy," said Christiane.
Some schools in Brazil have been participating in the project for several years, according to the coordinator. In the city of São José dos Campos, in the interior of São Paulo, for example, the municipal network has been participating in the project for four years and the theme is also used to explore subjects like the geography and history of each country nominated. Those under the age of 18 may vote and the activities, according to Christiane, are turned to those aged from 10 to 18. Registration for participation in the voting may be done up to the 10th of June and voting may go on up to October 25th.
In Brazil, the volunteers of the Children’s Pastoral, an organisation that works with infant nutrition in impoverished areas, were nominated in 2003. This year, apart from the Sudanese, other nominees include the late Pakistani Iqbal Masih, who was enslaved as a child and encouraged other children to abandon slavery, the Ethiopian Asfaw Yemiru, who lived in the streets as a child and set up a school for impoverished children after he grew up, and the South African Nkosi Jhonson, a victim of HIV at the age of 12.
The list also includes Maiti Nepal, from Nepal – who fights the trafficking of poor girls from her country to India -, Maggy Barankitse, who saved children orphaned in Burundi, in 1993; Prateep Ungsongtham, a Thai citizen who established a school for needy children at the age of 16, Dunga Mothers, a group of Kenyan mothers that works with HIV orphans, Nelson Mandela and his wife Graça Machel, who fight for the rights of girls in South Africa and Mozambique.
Other nominees include the Canadian Craig Kielburger, who established an organisation for children’s rights, the AOCM, from Rwanda, which houses genocide orphans in the country, Betty Makoni, the creator of an organisation that defends the rights of girls in Zimbabwe and the Cambodian Somaly Mam, who was a sexual slave and now fights for the liberation of children in the same situation in her country. In Brazil, the award includes the partnership of education portal Positivo Informática, Educacional, a private organisation, and Aprende Brasil, a state-owned education organisation. Through these organisations, it is also possible to participate in the voting.
*Translated by Mark Ament
