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CHIPAWO to commemorate Day of the African Child
CHIPAWO
June 14, 2006

June 16 is Day of the African Child and to commemorate this day Chipawo in collaboration with the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) has organised a family fun day under the national theme ‘Fighting Child Abuse is Fighting HIV and AIDS’ at the Harare Gardens Upper Stage on Saturday 17 June from 10am to 1pm. Admission is free.

The programme has been organised to make sure that it is by children for children. Guests at the function will include Her Excellency the Child President Vimbai Nhapi, Kidznet presenter Tinevimbo Chimbetete, Deputy Minister of Health and Child Welfare Dr. Edwin Muguti, the Ambassador of Sweden Sten Rylander and other Junior Parliamentarians. The event will see performances from Chipawo performance groups namely Harare Junior and Youth Theatre and Girl Power an all girls performing arts group. Children from the Disadvantaged Centres will also be given a platform to showcase their talent.

Other organisations like Justice for Children Trust, Streets Ahead, Youth Council, Campaign for Female Education (Camfed), Mntwana- Child to Child Support Project and Save the Children Norway will also be part of the proceedings at the Harare Gardens.

Chipawo’s greatest participation in the area of child abuse has been its involvement in the commemoration of the International Day on the Prevention of Child Abuse, which falls on 19 November each year and this was through poems, drama and music with children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Through its Mwana Anokosha programme and participatory arts Chipawo has managed to create alternative avenues for information on HIV and AIDS as well as child abuse. This has culminated in Chipawo becoming a leading and vocal organisation for the protection of child rights through the many participatory art encounters.

The Day of the African Child represents another avenue, which CHIPAWO will use to further spread message and break the culture of silence. Child sexual abuse has been worsened by the pervasive culture of silence, which our society tends to take, and this has proved to be a very fertile breeding ground for abuse. As Chipawo undertakes to bring into the public limelight the problems of abuse, celebrating this important day will create further awareness of child abuse.

In Soweto South Africa, thousands of black school children took to the streets in 1976, in a march more than half a mile long, to protest about the inferior quality of their education and to demand their right to be taught in their own language. Hundreds of young boys and girls were shot down; and in the two weeks of protest that followed, over a hundred people were killed and more than a thousand were injured. To honour the memory of those children and the courage of all those who marched, the Day of the African Child has been celebrated on 16 June every year since 1991, when it was promulgated by the then Organisation of African Unity, now African Union. In Zimbabwe our theme is ‘Fighting Child Abuse is fighting HIV and AIDS’ and the theme colour is orange.

Bridget Chimboza
Media Officer

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