Making a splash
Current estimates relay that there are 2.2 billion children in the world, roughly 30% of the global population.
What do you remember about your childhood? What memories, both good and bad, have carried forward in your life day? What experiences from your childhood have more heavily influenced who you are and how you show up in the world today?
In 1989, the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). This declaration was intended to protect children from discrimination, violence, and neglect while promoting the idea that children are sovereign individuals who have rights. This November, advocates, caregivers, and children around the world will celebrate the CRC with World Children’s Day.
So often when you speak to parents, they’ll share what they do differently than their parents based on what they learned through their own childhood experience. I think we should all have this mindset collectively. As we reflect on our own lives, we can consider how we set the path forward not only for our children, but for the seasons of kids that will follow for generations to come.
World Children’s Day honors the concept that children have rights, the same way that adults do, to live a life where they feel safe, have access to what they need, feel a sense of respect & dignity, have agency, and are allowed to advocate for self and others. Now just imagine, what if we listened to the big ideas that kids had to share instead of dismissing them? What if we asked them to help us solve some of the world’s biggest challenges? What can we learn from them?
Many of the world’s brightest organizations are doing just this — bringing in the voices of youth to co-create with them. And more and more young people are stepping up to lend their ideas, questions, and visions towards the past, present & future.
“The young generation is the best chance
we have to change the world.”
~ Nelson Mandela
Get connected to events like World Children’s Day and find ways to amplify young voices.
Find a voice that speaks to you in this collection of Youth Action Podcasts.
Honor that little kid version of yourself.
