ETHIOPIA: Two teenagers to promote child concerns at UN session

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ETHIOPIA: Two teenagers to promote child concerns at UN session

ADDIS ABABA, 26 April (IRIN) - Two Ethiopian teenagers are set to make
history at a landmark United Nations session dedicated to children.

Zerihun Mamo and Weinshet Asfaw, who are both 15 and have never travelled
outside Ethiopia before, are to act as special ambassadors for every child
in their country. They will fly to the UN headquarters in New York in May
and urge member states to help end the suffering of children in their
country.

The teenagers will join hundreds of other children from around the world in
attending the first-ever UN Special Session on Children, specifically aimed
at helping young people. It will also be the first time ever that such a
large number of children have actively participated in debates at a major UN
conference.

Zerihun, an orphan, told IRIN: "We will give every child in Ethiopia a
voice. We are hoping that we will be able to solve many of the problems that
children around the world face." He said he believed the most serious
problem facing children in Ethiopia was HIV/AIDS. "If more children are
affected, then it will prevent the country from developing properly," he
noted.

Weinshet, who plans to go to university after completing her studies at the
Bole Secondary School in Addis Ababa, added: “We are very lucky to be going.
The most important thing for us is to get our message across.”

The Special Session - to be held from 8 to 10 May - will hear how 150
million children across the planet are still malnourished and 100 million do
not go to school. At least half a million children have died of AIDS and two
million were killed in conflicts in the 1990s. The startling figures will be
spelt out at the UN conference, which is to be attended by a record number
of world leaders.

The conference will also spell out a Plan of Action to improve the lives of
children over the next 10 years and issue a UN Declaration.

Henrik Haggstrom, from Save the Children-Sweden, said previous summits
dedicated to children had failed to deliver the goods. But never before has
there been a UN Special Session. “While it’s taken over five decades to
convene a Special Session devoted entirely to children’s issues, this
conference is unique for children, in that young people from around the
world have been invited to participate in the proceedings,” he said.

Ibrahim Jabr, head of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in
Ethiopia, said the children were now in the driving seat. “Children will be
there,” he said, “not just to listen, but also to express themselves and
chart their own future.”

Zerihun, a keen basketball player who hopes to become a civil engineer, said
he believed education must be the priority of the Special Session.
“Education is the key,” Zerihun, who also wants to go to university, added.

Tens of thousands of children in Ethiopia were asked, in a joint venture
with UNICEF and Save the Children Alliance, to come up with a list of
priorities for improving their lives. These included care for street
children, fulfilling children's basic needs, ending harmful traditional
practices such as female genital mutilation and promoting child
participation. The children also called for more care for AIDS-infected
children and orphans, and ending the wars that have blighted the region.

[ENDS]

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