- ATD Fourth World

Some children speak out easily. But there are other children who have a harder time expressing themselves because they have hard lives and are left out. To be able to listen to all children, we need to find a way to encourage and support those who aren’t used to giving their opinion.

You, the children, you ask us questions, you talk about your actions. You talk about your dreams. You also tell us that you can’t have good lives if those around you don’t as well.

Jeny, a girl from Madagascar, works to help her family. She sells objects that she finds in a landfill. She writes, “My parents don’t force me to work. Here all kids work. That way we have a little bit of pocket money. And if our parents don’t earn anything, we can buy a little bit of rice. You need to be very brave to live here. We need to burn the trash and there’s always smoke around. That hurts our eyes and our lungs. When it rains we take shelter under plastic bags that we find, but the wet trash stinks. When you live here, it’s impossible to be healthy. Despite everything we go through, no one sees our courage and everyone rejects us. Nobody wants to get close to us. When I grow up, my dream is to be a doctor.”

Jeny is brave. It’s hard to work, but she does it anyway to support her family. A group of children from her neighborhood says, “If our parents were paid enough for their work, we wouldn’t have to work ourselves. It’s our parents that you should help.”

How can we come together and take action so Jeny and children like her can have better lives and make their dreams come true? Everywhere there are children who have lives that are too hard. But you, the children, you create ways to make it easier. Dominika, from Poland, writes, “I have a friend who gets around in a wheelchair, but that doesn’t keep us from playing together.”

These words and actions push us, children and adults, to get together to make sure that the rights of each child are respected. Agnès, Antonella, Ben, and Julieta, Tapori International