Children’s Rights & Protection Activity at a Private School in Islamabad

Three members from ADF visited a private school in Islamabad on Friday 15th May, to conduct an awareness raising session with children on Children’s Rights & Protection. The children selected for this activity were from Class 4, aged between 9 to 11 years.

The aim of the interactive session was to promote and raise awareness among children, so that they are able to protect themselves and be more aware their rights.

The session started off with a playful song on Children’s Rights in accordance with UNCRC. Children watched this video attentively. When we discussed the video with them, they were able to recognize and talk about what they had identified as children’s rights violations.

Shazia Jamal, Programme Manager at ADF proceeded to conduct an interactive session with the children on the UN Convention on the Rights of Children. The children were already familiar with some of the rights of children and when Shazia talked about UNCRC in detail, we felt it helped them identify additional rights. Further, through this session they were able to identify the sources of support available.

Aniqa Raza, Director Programmes at ADF, proceeded with her session next. She carried out an interesting activity involving all the children in the class. Three charts were pasted on different walls, with the options: “Good Choice”, “Bad Choice”, and “Not Sure”. The Children were asked to make a choice after a number of statements were read out to them. The children had to decide whether it was a good choice, bad choice and or whether they were not sure what to do. The children thoroughly enjoyed this activity, particularly when they were asked to nominate a spokesperson to explain the reasons why they had made that particular decision. It was a group activity where all the children participated with enthusiasm and excitement. Aniqa was highly praised by the children for making the session a fun and interactive activity. The children were all very happy and pleased with their presentations.

Next, Nazia Raja, Executive Director at ADF moved on to her session, which involved talking to the children about their feelings and how it is important to express feelings. She further spoke about being kind and considerate to others and emphasized that bullying is a bad trait. She gave examples and explained that bullying should not happen and that if it is happening, children should speak up and seek help from friends, family and or teachers. Nazia then moved on to talk to the children about Pakistani culture, religion and values. She emphasized the importance of these qualities and explained that in order to be a good human being, one should possess and practice such qualities.

The children were then asked to express their feelings through art. They were divided into three groups, where they had to talk about the various feelings they experienced in different situations. The children were then asked to draw and write about their feelings on chart paper. The activity was a group activity, to see how children interact with each other and how they allow each other to participate and get involved. All three groups did a wonderful job in expressing all sorts of feelings. All the children were very well behaved and were given an opportunity to present their art work with the rest of the class. The children were very happy and fully enjoyed this activity.

The outcome of this session was very encouraging. The children were very interested in learning more about Children’s Rights. We felt that by conducting this session, the children were more informed, more aware, more confident and would be able to be more vigilant in the future as well as share this information with their peer group. They all agreed to go home and talk about what they had learnt and share this with their parents, siblings, extended family and friends.