By Trudy Simpson, Staff Reporter
Prime Minister P.J. Patterson (left) raps with children following last Wednesday's inter-generational dialogue and launch of the United Nations Children Fund's (UNICEF) 2003 report on the State of the World's Children at the Jamaica Conference Centre, downtown Kingston. - Rudolph Brown/Staff Photographer
TWO OUT of three children in Latin America and the Caribbean have little or no trust in their Government and related institutions. According to the United Nations Children Fund's (UNICEF) 2003 State of the World Children's Report, Caribbean and Latin American Governments are losing the trust of one of their most important investments the youth and children.
The focus of this year's State of the World's Children report is on child participation and is intended to remind adults that children and young people have the right to have their opinions seriously considered when decisions are being made which affect their lives.
But the report, based on a survey, said children still feel that they are of no importance to these institutions and that there is still not enough being done to guarantee youth rights, especially in areas such as education, participation and preventing child labour.
"I don't think they care. They don't give people what they need," nine-year-old Danik told The Gleaner yesterday.
She was concerned about the numbers of children who are going hungry, living on the street, being exposed to violence and crowding into classrooms in schools which need better facilities.
"There is a problem with guns. Too many people are dying," she continued, referring to a 13-year-old boy who was killed in St. Catherine on Saturday.
"We should get rid of guns because there is too much violence. I worry about that because it may happen in my community and somebody might die," she added.
The United Nations' survey, carried out among 40,000 children in 2001, showed high levels of disillusionment regarding Government and related services, among children in region and several parts of the world.
The surveys, done in the year preceding the 2002 Inaugural United Nation's special session on Children, recorded the opinions of children in 72 countries, aged nine to 18-years-old.
They were asked, among other things, to identify the person they admired most. Most did not choose politicians or political leaders and they did not cross Danik's mind when she was asked a similar question yesterday.
According to the State of the World's Children report, "In Latin America and theCaribbean, the picture is even more grim. Many of the children surveyed did not identify any leaders at all (and) a number of children believed that their country would be worse off in the future, partly because they view their Government as unable to solve problems."
At last Wednesday's launch of the report and hosting of an inter-generational dialogue at the Jamaica Conference Centre in Kingston, children and youth asked tough questions of Prime Minister, P.J. Patterson, outlining their concern at various social problems.
Children as young as six years old wanted to know what Government was doing to help street youth and those who are unable to buy books for school or fail various educational programmes. Performing arts students wanted to know how close Government was to providing funds via systems such as grants or scholarships for them to attend tertiary and other institutions.
They also wanted to know what political leaders would be doing to stop the flood of foreign goods into the local marketplace and its negative effects on local produce; to halt incest; to improve relationships between youth and the police and to remove vendors from the streets without hurting their income so badly that their children will suffer.
Some did not appear satisfied with the Prime Minister's references to book rental schemes, the Students' Loan Bureau (SLB), the islandwide expansion of the Government's new social security scheme, Programme for Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH), or, in reference to the foreign goods question, that children should begin by buying local goods and encouraging parents and others to follow suit.
The distrust of Government is not only a regional feeling as children across the world feel the same way.
The UN survey found that only four out of 10 children in Europe and Central Asia see voting in elections as an effective way to improve things in their country. Just under a third trusted Government and politicians ranked very low when children were asked to identify a famous person they admired. Only two in every 100 chose a politician or political leader.
In East Asia and the Pacific, only three per cent said that they admired a president or prime minister most, with the exception being East Timor.
"Among all the children surveyed, trust of politicians and of the police and teachers diminished with age - and presumably with experience," the report said.
The Children's Forum Report from the UN Special session on Children gave insight into what children were thinking about Government.
"War and politics are adult games but children are always the losers," asserted 17-year-old, Eliza Kantardic from Bosnia-Herzegovina, while 18-year-old Gael Mbemba from Chad, lamented, "If you want to set up schools, make sure you have a teacher, a library. The promises of the past have left us disenchanted. The result is not what you have said, which is why we are worried. Listen to the children, not with your ears but with your hearts."
