Mandeville, Manchester – Schoolchildren in Manchester recently took to the streets in this south-central town in song and dance to highlight the need to lift the awareness of children’s rights in Jamaica.

Organised by the Child Development Agency (CDA), the road march, which started at Ridgemount Presbyterian Church on Mandeville’s Main Street and ended with a concert at the Cecil Charlton Park, sought to educate children about their rights, remind adults about their role in children’s lives, as well as make the broader point about the rights of children in society.

“We want to empower the children in Jamaica, and events like this allow them to play an important role, which will make them more aware of their rights,” said childcare officer at the CDA and event co-ordinator, Althea Knight.

“By having the march, with all the banners displayed, the general public will also be able to see what the rights of children are,” she added.

Participants of the march and concert were students from numerous schools throughout Manchester, including Albion Primary, Harry Watch Primary, Christiana High, and Bishop Gibson High.

Through myriad skits, songs and poems they dramatised some of the problems common to children in Jamaica, such as negligent parents and absentee fathers.

“I think that in Jamaica, there are still too many instances where the rights of the children are being violated, like the daddy not being there and mothers leaving children at home to go to work,” said Knight. “But events like this show the wider public that to help solve these problems, more should be done, and we are aware of what’s happening.”

The day’s events culminated with the presentation of a honorary plaque of bravery to 10 year-old Colin Foster of Porus Primary School who, on Tuesday, October 26, 2006, rescued his wheelchair-bound great grandmother from their burning house.

With the introduction of the Child Care and Protection Act 2004, which stipulates penalties of imprisonment for negligent or abusive parents, Jamaica has taken great strides in recent times to protect its children from abuse and poverty. However, according to the most recent statistics from unicef.org, one of every two Jamaicans who live in poverty is a child. Other statistics on the CDA website show that in the last four years, 77 children have been seriously injured or killed in household fires. Almost all of the children who died were five years old or younger.