'Now I can read my rights!'
On 25th November 2006, staff of Knowing Children traveled from Bangkok to the Mae Hlar refugee camp on the Thai-Myanmar border to present the first copies of a Karen language translation of the CRC to children in a small orphanage.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child provides all children, everywhere with the same rights:
- to provision of life, freedom, homes, identity, health and schooling;
- to protection from being hurt in any way;
- to give their views on decisions made for their welfare.
It is vital that children should be able to read about their rights in their own language. But millions of children worldwide are not able to do this, because the Convention has not been translated into their mother tongue. Today Karen children are able to read it for the first time, thanks to a boy from this orphanage, who in 2004 asked Margaret Purvis, a visitor from the United States of America, if she could find a copy of the Convention in Karen. She promised to do this and Knowing Children helped her to keep her promise, with the help of five Karen translators and one Karen artist, as well as financial contributions from Save the Children Sweden and Margaret herself, and an advance order for 2,000 copies from UNICEF office for Thailand.
Knowing Children staff present copies of the CRC in Karen to
children in the orphanage
Margaret was able to keep her promise to a parentless, stateless boy because this project falls within Knowing Children’s vision that all policies and programmes for children should be founded on rights-based, scientific information. The pocket-sized translation includes an illustrated, children-friendly explanation, as well as texts in both Karen and English, a foreword by Jaap Doek, the Chair of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, who writes 'Particular thanks go to the boy who first requested to be able to read about his own human rights. I hope that many such translations will soon make this information available in the mother tongues of children and adults from minority and ethnic groups.'
Mae Hlar refugee camp, the village where the orphanage is located
The Knowing Children team at the launch, with Deborah from Partners (fourth from left),
Reverend Arthur and Mrs Classper (cente) and Christ Stone, one of the Karen translators (far right).
For further information and copies of the CRC in Karen, or to make a donation towards work with Karen, contact Knowing Children in Bangkok: Telephone: +66 2655 1880,
judith.ennew@knowingchildren.org
Photographs: Josef Polleross
polleross@gmail.com or www.josefpolleross.com