Technology brings more voices to New York

Childreach
Wednesday, 13 June 2001

Even the best laid plans have hitches sometimes but, fortunately, having one country offline didn't prevent PLAN International's interactive video conference on the rights of the child from bringing the voices of children to New York.

Children in El Salvador, Finland, Honduras and Togo were involved in the video conference together with representatives of governments, non-governmental organizations (NGO) and delegates from various countries attending the third Preparatory Committee meeting for the UN General Assembly's Special Session on Children.

Video conferencing connects two or more parties with both audio and video. With a microphone, speakers, a video camera, some software and a communications connection like a telephone line, people can see and speak to each other in real time.

The main concerns of children in Honduras were poverty and education and they also asked how to ensure that children's opinions would be taken into consideration and their needs addressed.

"Our dreams are never achieved because of poverty," said one participant. "Children don't have money for school supplies so they don't go to school or they have to work instead of going to school."

NGOs working in Honduras spoke about the need not only for resources, but also attitude change. According to one representative, "We need a new mentality that recognizes that children can do it and have the ideas and solutions."

Children from El Salvador highlighted the lack of clean water in schools and the need for bigger and better schools and for more extensive nutrition programmes.

"Education gives us better opportunities so that we can be more useful to our country," said one girl. "If more girls were educated, we would progress," agreed another.

Government representatives said the problems in large part were a result of the numerous natural disasters that have struck the country. They acknowledged the many challenges and pointed to the significant progress being made in setting up temporary schools, fixing the country's water system and ensuring the mental health of families.

The concerns of children in Finland were different and included the need to help children deal with change, support for single parents and recognizing the child's right to happiness. Many of the participants were also interested in understanding and helping alleviate the problems facing children in poor countries and the video conference provided a good opportunity to learn about these.

Unfortunately, a technical hitch meant that children in Togo were not able to participate. However, their representatives in New York spoke briefly about their number one concern: child trafficking and the difficulty in dealing with what has become a regional issue.

For PLAN International and sponsors Telefonica SA, the video conference was a dry run for a much more ambitious project they hope to host in September, a live video conference between the Special Session and six Children's Parliaments around the world.

For more information, or to contact Childreach, see their website at: www.childreach.org