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Youngsters active on social media participate in UNICEF camp on child rights

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Senior Correspondent

NewsBits.in

BHOPAL: A two-day Youth4Children camp was held at Sehore near Jamunia Tank village. Around 50 youth from Bhopal had participated in the camp held as part of programmes marking 30 years of signing of the convention on the child rights.

The aim was to engage young people especially who are active on social media to spread awareness on child rights. The camp was organised by UNICEF in partnership with Sky Social, a non-governmental organisation.

At the end of the camp, participants made an action plan for upcoming child rights week from November 14-20, 2019.

They decided on how they are going to use power of social media and tools like video's stories, blogs, images to highlight and spread awareness on child rights, 30 years of CRC, issues like child marriage, nutrition, health and protection.

Speaking at the inaugural function, Michael Juma, Chief UNICEF, Madhya Pradesh, highlighted importance of engaging with youth and said that increasingly 'youth4children' strategy has become central pillar for advancing child rights in every spheres. He said in thirty years after signing of CRC, we have achieved a lot but we still have challenges like child marriage, violence against children and fighting under-nutrition.

District Collector of Sehore Ajay Gupta spoke on efforts being taken by the district and also on the challenge of declining child sex ratio in the district. Pankaj Chaturvedi, Pawan Deolia also spoke. Anil Gulati, Communication Specialist, UNICEF conducted an activity for the participating youth, to stress how important it is to recognise that all children have all rights at all times. He spoke on the provision, participation and protection rights of children.

Shristi Pragat of SkySocial spoke on the challenges of gender, and how important it is to recognise children and their rights in present times. Dr Sameer Pawar, Nutrition Specialist, UNICEF spoke to participants on the importance of first 1000 days in life of the child. 

Participants also visited special care new born unit and nutrition rehabilitation unit of Sehore to get first hand experience about their functioning. Youth also participated in a village walk, drew social maps on the ground in village highlighting various services for children as well the challenges using locally available materials like mud, colours, leaves etc.

Participants interacted with various stakeholders of child rights like anganwadi workers, Asha worker, teachers, sarpanch, people in village and most importantly with children to find out the issues they are facing. They also had an interactive sessions wherein they asked questions about gender, child health, nutrition, school education etc and shared their perspectives.