On No Litter Day in Zimbabwe, children raised their voices so everyone in the town heard them. "Because if we don’t look after our environment, life will be difficult and short for all children on the planet. And that’s not something that we, the No Litter Generation, are willing to accept!” says WCP Child Rights Ambassador Hassan, 12.
Hassan and his ambassador friend Kimberley take environmental issues very seriously. "As WCP Child Rights Ambassadors, we have been given a lot of training in children’s rights. I’ve learned that a clean environment is counted as one of the rights of the child. I didn’t know that before. As WCP ambassadors, we are now fighting for children’s right to a clean environment and health. It’s really important! Us members of the No Litter Generation do not accept previous generations littering and failing to look after our environment. It’s time for change! We hope the fact that we demonstrated in front of everyone in the town on No Litter Day and demanded that adults change their behaviour will be a good start.”
Hassan and Kimberly, better safe than sorry!
Environmental Club
“The other ambassadors and I meet twice a week, as we’re also in the school’s Environmental Club. In the club we learn how important recycling is for the environment. Litter contaminates the environment and makes people sick. We learn how to recycle plastic bags to make rain hats for the rainy season, and we’ve made over fifty rubbish bins out of old beer and juice bottles, which people see as worthless junk. We make things that are useful, beautiful and cheap. You can actually make a little wastepaper bin out of old bottles or bottle tops instead of buying an expensive new one. And it’s clever! “Everything we learn we share with all the others at school assembly.”
Kimberley and Hassan both got involved and organised No Litter Day, and collected litter.
Girls’ rights
“When I had my Child Rights Ambassador training, I learned a lot about girls’ rights. That it’s a violation of a girl’s rights to force her into child marriage, to do all the heavy housework, to stop her going to school or not listen to her opinions. There are lots of parents here who value their sons more and listen to what we have to say. Daughters don’t count. Even when us boys are little, we’re allowed to tell our big sisters what to do. If the girls are constantly seen as being of less value and treated badly, I think that in the end they start to believe it themselves. It’s so wrong! Because girls’ rights have always been violated, and boys’ rights always protected, I decided to be a Child Rights Ambassador who fights for girls’ rights and gender equality together with Kimberley and the other ambassadors.”
... and this plastic hat!
Period know-how
“I often talk to my friends and others at school about the importance of gender equality and girls’ rights. And I’ve produced material about menstruation, which we keep on a shelf at the Environmental Club. There are sanitary towels and panty liners and other things. Girls can learn to look after themselves properly. But we also teach the boys about periods, so they understand, stop teasing and can support the girls and treat them with respect instead. This is about girls’ rights after all! “In the future, I want to do talks about children’s rights and the environment at schools and workplaces.”
Hassan, 12, WCP Child Rights Ambassador, Hurungwe Primary & Secondary School
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