Junior Mayor of Harare, Nigel Mharapara statement on day of the African child celebrations

Zimbabwe joins the rest of Africa to commemorating the Day of the African Child, a day has been celebrated on June 16 every year since 1991, when it was first initiated by the Organisation of African Unity. It honors those who participated in the Soweto Uprising in 1976 on that day. It also raises awareness of the continuing need for improvement of the education provided to African children.

In Soweto, South Africa, on June 16, 1976, about ten thousand black school children marched in a column more than half a mile long, protesting the poor quality of their education and demanding their right to be taught in their own language. Hundreds of young students were shot more than a hundred people were killed in the protests of the following two weeks, and more than a thousand were injured. Therefore on June 16 every year, governments, NGOs, international organizations and other stakeholders gather to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the full realization of the rights of children in Africa.

The 2017 Commemorations running under the theme " ACCELERATING PROTECTION, EMPOWERMENT AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR CHILDREN IN AFRICA BY 2030 aptly responds to key topical issues at the heart of the development of an African child, whilst the Agenda 2030 landmark exhibits that our continent is planning and prepared to invest time and resources to the address the developmental discources that protect, empoer and create equal opportunities for children.

This year as children we note with concern the various challenges that are faced broadly by children in Africa as follows:

1. Limited access to basic education systems and services, we implore governments to subsidie education and ensure that the environment is accesible to children living with disabilities as well.

2. Poor living conditions that are not child friendly, we implore the state to invest more in Water, Sanitation and Hygine a schools and in our communities.

3. Although several laws have been passed in a number of countries aimed at ending Child marriages, as children we are concerned that little has been done to enforcement of these laws, we implore that states to breath life into these laws with immediate effect.

4. Marginalization of the girl child. Traditional African norms and customs were at the forefront of marginalizing girls in communities. We implore governments to be at forefront of eliminating all forms of gender inequality at schools and in communities, give full priorty to the needs of the girl child and ensure that the environment is gender sensitive and communities uphold respect and protect girls.

5. Continued child labour especially in the marginalised segments of socities; This continues to deprive children the right to enjot their fundamental rights as children, including rights to education and protection.

6. Lack of information on drugs, sexual reproductive health and responsible use of technology,, we implore governments to invest more in social education at schools so as to promote the protection of the African Child from all forms of harm including drug abuse, sexual harassment, unwanted pregnacies and physical abuse.

7. Lack of a strong voice to be head as children: With the mandate we have to represent all the children in Zimbabwe as the Junior Mayors, we converged in Harare last week and came up with the 2017 Children's 10 Point Plan which we will be using as children countryide to lobby and advocating for the PROTECTION, EMPOWERMENT AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR CHILDREN IN AFRICA BY 2030. We therefore implore both central and local government to lend an ear to their Junior Councils as we come to engage all policy makers with our 10 Point Plan. This is all in efforts to ensure that NO CHILD IS LEFT BEHIND in the 2030 Agenda.

Provision of quality and affordable education for all including children living with disabilities, those living in marginalized and hard to reach communities remains a priority. Road rehabilitations to reduce the rate of accidents, renovation of recreational facilities for children to eliminate social barriers, prioritising WASH, provision of reliable and efficient health systems and improving social security and children's social welfare through making efforts to eliminate children living in and off the streets are the some of the key issues that are included in the 2017 Children's 10 Point Plan.

Thank you.