Angolan GMC-Say Yes for Children Activity
Update:
Over 20,000 Angolan children, women
and men - including the President of the National Assembly and all Members
of Parliament - have voted to "Say Yes for Children", as part
of Angola's Global Movement for Children (GMC) activities in 2001.
And, in a positive sign of the priority being placed on the Angolan Government's agenda for the future of Angolan children, the President of the Republic, Minister of Health, Minister of Justice, Vice-Minister of Family & Women, the Director of the National Institute for Children and the First Lady of Angola - along with Angolan Child Parliamentarians, former abducted children & Angolan NGOs - were to attend the 19-21 September UN General Assembly Special session on Children, now postponed due to the tragic events of 11 September in New York.
As the collective global force devoted to creating a world where every child's right to dignity, security and self-fulfillment is achieved, the GMC's aim is to increase and broaden the level of action for children and to campaign for the end of discrimination against children and adolescents. Some of the GMC-related activities conducted in Angola so far this year have included:
- public introduction of the GMC at the
Angolan launch of the Portuguese-version of the SOWCR 2001 in March
in the presence of the First Lady of Angola, Minister of Education, Vice-Minister
of Health, Director of the National Institute for Children and UN, NGO,
donor, civil society, embassy and national & international media representatives;
- performances and interviews by the popular
musical group and Special "GMC-Say Yes" Advocates, "As Gingas",
during the national launch of the GMC on 26 April at the National Institute
for Children in Luanda with the participation of 180 children, Government,
UN, NGO, national & international media representatives; on the day
of the national and global launch of the GMC, television and radio round-table
discussions on the subject were also held and broadcast into homes across
Angola;
- the wide electronic and hard-copy distribution
amongst government counter-parts and partners of the UNICEF Angola PhotoNote
on the GMC Rallying Call/Say Yes Voting Sheet which was also included as
a free insert on 26 April in Jornal de Angola, Angola's largest circulation
newspaper;
- the electronic, hard-copy & website
distribution of the special April GMC issue of the UNICEF Angola newsletter
"Canuco";
- the participation of an Angolan delegation
to the Pan-African Forum on the Future of Children in Cairo by Angolan
Child Parliamentarians and an Angolan government delegation in May;
- the participation of 2,000 Angolan children
in a peaceful demonstration against the exploitation and abuse of children
in Luanda on 1 June, Universal Children's Day, culminating in the presentation
of a 70,000-signature appeal on behalf of Angolan children to the UN Secretary
General's Representative;
- the GMC briefing to the President and all Members of the National Assembly in June, followed by the televised "Say Yes for Children" vote by all Angolan Members of Parliament;
GMC-Say Yes briefings to UN Heads of Agency, UNICEF partners, UNICEF government counter-parts and national media;
- the country-wide distribution of the
UNICEF-produced civic education booklet, Epa! on the GMC, including its
free insertion in Jornal de Angola on 16 June, the Day of the African Child;
- the production and signing of large-size
GMC-Say Yes banners at various public activities throughout the year including
those: at the UN building in Luanda, University Jean Piaget, Angolan Writers
Union and at various provincial ceremonies including the Kuito visit by
the UNICEF UK National Committee;
- radio & television GMC interviews with the UNICEF Representative on BBC and with RTP-Africa;
GMC-Say Yes cartoon video broadcasts on TPA television;
- the participation of the UNICEF Executive
Director, Carol Bellamy, in a "Say Yes" advocacy event at INAC
in August, which included discussions with Angolan Child Parliamentarians
and performances by Special Advocates "As Gingas" in the presence
of 120 children, NGO, Government and international & national media
representatives including CNN, BBC, VOA and RTP-Africa;
- the participation of Child Parliamentarians,
"As Gingas" and UNICEF, NGO, Government representatives in two
broadcasts - including a 2-hour special in September - of the "Janela
Aberta" television programme;
- many GMC-Say Yes activities held with
children in collaboration with UNICEF Angola's 7 provincial field offices
and provincial government, UN, NGO, civil society and media representatives;
- coverage of all events throughout the
year by national & international media and coverage of specific GMC
Angola activities on UNICEF's global web-site (www.unicef.org/noteworthy/angola2001);
- coverage and wide electronic, hard-copy
and web-site distribution of articles related to the GMC and Say Yes in
the January, February, March, April, May, June, August & October issues
of UNICEF Angola's monthly newsletter "Canuco"; and,
- upcoming activities include GMC-Say Yes activities with FIFA Angola and tie-in's with advocacy events in Angola related to the 20 November adoption of the CRC by the UN General Assembly and to the Portuguese-version launch of the SOWCR 2002. additionally, a UNICEF-Angola photo exhibition consisting of 20 photos with advocacy messages on UNICEF issues of concern, has been sent to the Angola Permanent Mission in Angola for public exhibition whenever the rescheduled UNGASS on Children takes place.
Special Note:
Following the abduction of 60 children and 2 adults during the armed attack on Caxito, UNICEF and the UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator issued a press release on 8 May, that stimulated intense, sustained international & national public pressure for the release of the children, symbolising in tangible terms how the GMC can be a force for positive change.
UNICEF's public condemnation of the abduction, supported by UNICEF's communication offices in New York, Geneva and Nairobi, sparked numerous international & national media interviews and coverage (BBC, CNN, Reuters, etc.), and public statements from the Angolan government, church groups and private citizens with thousands of Angolans signing a petition calling for an end to children's involvement in the Angolan conflict. The petition was presented to the UN Special Representative for Angola who also made public appeals to the abductors.
1,000 children in Japan signed an appeal for their release with the assistance of the UNICEF Japanese National Committee, as did university students in Canada. A University of Southern California professor and world-renowned Angola expert sent a message to UNITA's headquarters in Lisbon expressing his outrage. Private citizens from Brazil, New Zealand, Belgium, Canada and other countries contacted UNICEF Angola expressing their concern. An opinion piece was published on UNICEF's Child Advocacy web-site for all UNICEF national committees on the issue. And, in collaboration with ADPP, UNICEF prepared a poster for distribution with photos of all the abducted children.
These efforts, symbolising the spirit & teamwork of the GMC, contributed to the release of the unharmed, but exhausted children, on 25 May and prompted UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi to state in a BBC interview that their abduction had been a mistake.