THE DAY OF THE AFRICAN CHILD CELEBRATION IN FAKO DIVISION: CARTON ROUGE TO THE VIOLATION OF CHILDREN´S RIGHT

Celebrated this year on June 16th 2011, The Day of the African Child was indeed historic in nature and style. This day, which is celebrated to commemorate the massacre of thousands of African children in SOWETO, South Africa, has been transformed into a platform where the challenges of the African child can be resolved. The theme for this year’s Day of the African child was Irresponsible parenthood, the root cause for the phenomenon of street children.

The activities that marked this year’s celebration began as far back as June 2^nd 2011. These were meetings of stake holders and youth led organizations in the South West Region of Cameroon. OGCEYOD Cameroon was one of the youth organizations to take part in the activities of this big day.

 The day began with a match pass round the city of Limbe by children, youths and their representatives. The ceremony was presided at by the Senior Divisional Officer for Fako, Chief of Social Centre who gave a speech calling on all stake holders, parents and the community to make sure that children are protected.

OGCEYOD Cameroon made immense contributions to the success that was recorded on this day. A team of eight volunteers was put in place by the programs Director of OGCEYOD Cameroon to coordinate the activities of the day. A jury team was also created for the debate led by Kindzeka Nestor, Paula Menzel, Vuyof Peter and Konda Delphine, Representatives of OGCEYOD Cameroon. The discussions for the debate were centered on the theme of the day and youths were giving the opportunity to give their honest opinion on the topic. OGCEYOD Cameroon also coached a young boy who spoke about his experiences with living on the street to the audience attending the celebration. This activity was a sad one as it reflected the plight of thousands of street children around the world. The young man named Esona Divine called on the society to pay more attention to the issues of street children. Nevertheless, the atmosphere was filled with much joy as future African leaders tailored their lives through education, music, poems and comedy.