In the build up to the International Day of the African Child on June 16th, we wanted to take a moment to celebrate the role that youth have played and continue to play in both inspiring and creating Social Change.
The Day marks the 47th Anniversary of the start of the Soweto uprising, where Black students in South Africa protested the compulsory enforcement of Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in schools. Afrikaans was and was seen as the language of the oppressor, neither widely known or spoken amongst Black people. The brutality of police violence and the state response that day in 1976 was eventually commemorated in post-Apartheid South Africa as Youth Day and, internationally, as The Day of the African Child.
For a brief history of the day, please see the video clip below:
Please read more about the Day of the African Child here on the website of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC). This year's theme will be "The Rights of the Child in the Digital Environment", which you can read more about here on the website of the Africa Social Work Network (ASWNET), and please also explore themes from previous years here.
On Wednesday 14th June, the IACD (International Association for Community Development) will be hosting an event exploring the Role of Youth in Community Development, featuring 3 youth-led organisations from Tanzania and Kenya. You can register for the (free) event here, for more information about IACD, please check here, and learn how to join IACD here. For information about the 3 organisations, please click on their names below:
Tamasha - focused on Youth Participation and Development in Tanzania
Centre for Development & Peace (CDP) - focused on Peace-Building, Gender and Development in Mombasa and the Coast Region of Kenya
Big Ship Organisation - focused on Environmental Conservation in Mombasa and the Coast region of Kenya
Below are a few short videos giving several great examples of Youth Activism around the world:
We leave you with the words of Okim Otu, a poet from Nigeria:
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