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First Pan-American Child Forum in Lima, Peru
Accounts from Julianna Hitchins
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
The Pan-American Child Congress is one of the organs of the Inter-American Children's Institute (IIN).
Every five years member countries of the Organisation of American States (OAS) assemble at the ministerial level along with secretaries of state and high-ranking government authorities with the competence to discuss matters related to childhood and adolescence in this hemisphere.
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| (Backline) Jose Miguel Rodriguez (Colombia), Toneisha (St Kitts and Nevis), Jeyson Rendón (Colombia), Kaela Barrett (St Vincent and The Grenadines), Santiago (facilitator), Abiola ( Barbados), Mario Naves (United States), Shane Superville (Trinidad and Tobago), Donna-Lisa Nelson (St Lucia). (Front) Yenifer Guerrero Rayo (Colombia), Julianna Hitchins (Jamaica), Christopher Spencly (Canada), Catherine Golub (United States). Missing: Ben Obright (Canada) |
The First Pan-American Child Forum was held September 21-25, 2009. In order to promote active participation and the exchange of experiences and ideas based on different cultures, youth representatives were invited from each member state.
The objective being that these youth representatives would have the opportunity to discuss issues of great importance to the youth in their countries and recommend solutions to these problems.
What is the OAS?
The Organisation of American States is composed of 35 countries in South, Central and North America, as well as the Caribbean. The objectives of the OAS are to strengthen mutual co-operation based on the values of democracy, defend common interests and debate the general issues which concern the region and world.
What is the IIN?
The Inter-American Children's Institute is a specialised OAS organisation, which comprises all member states and constitutes a setting for historic and permanent commitment towards the rights and welfare of the children/youth of the American continent.
Jamaica was represented at the First Pan-American Child Congress by Alison Anderson - the executive director of the Child Development Agency and Principle Representative to the IIN Head of delegation - as well as myself, Julianna Hitchins, member of the Jamaica Youth Coalition and a student at Campion College.
My participation in this Congress has given me the experience of a lifetime, one that will not be easily forgotten.
Upon arriving in Lima, Peru, I was still unsure whether there were going to be anymore representatives from the Caribbean any people who I knew I would easily relate to, not only because of language, but similar cultures.
On the first day, Monday, September 21, of what I thought to be an interesting week, registration was held in the morning. Seeing all the children there from Spanish speaking countries was intimidating. My head of delegation said, "Julianna, go and make friends!" and I thought to my-non-Spanish-speaking-self, "go up to them and say 'wah gwaan'?"
Though they were speaking to each other and taking pictures together, I wasn't sure if they were a friendly bunch. Soon after, though, I changed my perception when two Peruvian girls, despite the language difference, introduced themselves.
That morning countries were placed into groups. Group one, my group, comprised the English Speaking countries, plus Colombia. This was when I found out that there were kids from Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Kitts and Nevis, Canada, and The United States there. What a relief, someone to talk to in English!
After meeting the members of my group and the facilitators/translators, we were required to select a creative workshop in which to participate. The choices were Graffiti, Photography, Video and Drama; as an art student, I chose Graffiti.
Later, all the youth representatives were instructed to make posters representing how the rights of the child are jeopardised in their countries. After that we all had the opportunity of reviewing each other's posters, and using coloured stickers, identifying the issues as being: most dangerous (red), most common (green) and most urgent white. The process allowed us to identify the issues that we needed to focus on as country representatives and to understand the issues facing our peers.
That was the first day.
On the second day, I went to my creative workshop (Graffiti) were I was introduced to other youth representatives and had the chance to learn their names and know which countries they represented.
Later on, I returned to my group (group one) and at that time we discussed all the issues on each others posters. It was at this group meeting that I realised that the situation of children in Jamaica is not as horrific as people constantly make it out to be.
A 16-year-old representative from Colombia shared her experience of being abducted at age 13 by a rebel group known as the FARC. She explained that, when abducted, children are forced to do manual labour, deal drugs and even kill on behalf of the FARC.
She described the terrifying experience of attempting to escape along with other children, some of whom were caught and later murdered.
She was lucky to be alive to tell the story, but from her perspective the issue of child abduction and slavery was a serious issue that needed to be addressed at this conference.
Another issue of great concern is the issue of TEENage pregnancy, the effect it has on the young girls and how they are treated by society. One such representative from Brazil, became a mother at the age of 12.
At the end of the second day, two persons from each group were selected by their group members to formulate the conclusions drawn from the day's discussions. And this would be presented at the first Plenary Session the following day.
On September the 23, the third day, the inaugural session of the Pan-American Child Congress was held.
This was the formal meeting of all heads of delegations, as well as the youth representatives. The youth took an official photo with the president of the Republic of Peru, HE Alan García Pérez.
Returning to our working groups, each group discussed ways in which children might become more active, participate and have a voice in the policy choices made by our respective governments. With input from all the members of the group, recommendations were pulled together and a document prepared outlining the various youth recommendations. Again, two representatives were selected to present our findings. In this instance, I presented along with my colleague Jeyson Rendón who represents Colombia.
Later, the presenters from each group met to write the article that would be read the following morning to the Congress. After coming in late from our tour of Lima and a visit to a beautiful fountain park, we had dinner and then began putting the article together. Being an English speaker, an interpreter was needed for us to communicate and write the article. At the end of the sit-down though, Jeyson and I were elected to read the document at the Congress the following morning.
On the fourth day, the formal child congress was held with one representative from each participating country. The role of the child congress was to create a final document based off of the two documents that had previously been read at the Congress. This final document consisted of our conclusions and recommendations for the participation of children in the age groups five and under, six to 11 years and 12 to 17 years.
The recommendations that were made are:
. Establishing Child Councils in all countries of the region. Taking into account the voices of children in the development and implementation of public policies.
. Ensuring that the people responsible for raising and caring for children instill them with confidence to encourage them to participate and express their ideas. Communication is the means to guarantee it.
. Training teachers and parents.
. Involving parents in monitoring the treatment their children receive at school.
. Including child rights in the school programme, using experiential methods.
. Training teachers in child rights in child rights and encouraging participation.
. Facilitating installations for child participation. Promoting recreation, play and expression/communication.
. Ensuring that parents allow their children to express opinions on subjects affecting or involving their families.
. Creating early stimulation spaces to guarantee the participation of children aged five and under.
. Improving communication and relations among children.
. Enhancing employment conditions for adults in an effort to improve the quality of life of their families.
. Better organising time to be able to engage in dialogue.
. Improving and expanding campaigns to disseminate rights.
Four of the participants at this child congress would be selected to thank the congress the following day and read the document at the last Plenary Session.
On the fifth day - the last day of the forum - all the work that was done in the creative workshops was put on display and the last Plenary Session was held.
This day was definitely the most distressing day. For the past few days, everyone had made friends and now had to tell them bye with no idea when they were going to see them next. Thank God for Facebook®!
I learned a great deal from my peers at this conference and made friends I want to keep! I hope to exchange ideas with them in the future and implement what I can in my country, Jamaica!
I also learned that just as Spanish sounds like "blah blah blah." to me, English sounds the same to them, imagine that!
I was also pleased to report to my Spanish teacher at school that I was able to practise a little something. "No habla español" (I don't speak Spanish).
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