- ATD Fourth World

A group of Tapori [1] children from Haiti reacts to the violence they see around them, writing, “We want to stay friends with everyone. It’s important to stick together so our neighborhood changes.”

Children are often the first victims of threats to human rights, such as violence, poverty, and exclusion, but they can also take action in the fight to respect the dignity of all and inspire adults to do the same.

Patryk, a boy from Poland, writes, “It’s important to find a way so that no child feels alone or excluded. I help my friend when he’s sick. I tell him what happened at school, I spend time with him, and that’s important.”

Patryk is one of more than one thousand children in over twenty countries who are already participating in Tapori’s international campaign: “Listen to Us and We’ll Change the World!” Through the campaign Tapori asks children to create life-sized silhouettes and write a message about how they can help build a more just world for all.

Tapori then sends the silhouettes to other groups of children, who thus get to know children from other countries and feel like part of an international mobilization for inclusion and solidarity. This campaign strives to foster the participation of children from all backgrounds: those who daily experience poverty and exclusion and those who do not. During 2007, exhibits of silhouettes will be the occasion for meetings in favor of friendship and against poverty.

No matter their background, these children come together around their commitment to the idea that for children to be able to realize their rights, they must all have the same chances.

Children are the future, but they’re also today. On Universal Children’s Day, a group of Tapori children wrote, “We don’t have all the solutions, but we want everyone to understand the situation of children who have problems so these children no longer feel lonely. In the end, we can find a solution together to give them a better life. We are asking the United Nations to understand poor children and to learn from them all that they already do with their friends to make things better.”

This campaign takes place in the broader context of the International Movement ATD Fourth World’s campaign: “Ending Extreme Poverty, A Road to Peace.” This marks the 20^th anniversary of October 17, the World Day to Overcome Extreme Poverty (recognized by the United Nations in 1992 as the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty).

For more information about Tapori’s campaign or to read other children’s messages, please visit www.tapori.org.

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Movement International ATD Fourth World - Pierrelaye - France write to us