Schools : International Youth Day : Youth2030

credits: Elyx Yak, virtual ambassador UN

https://unfoundation.org/

"Education should help young people learn how to learn: combining knowledge, life skills & critical thinking. "

Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of UN 

Today we celebrate the International Youth Day. On 17 December 1999, the United Nations General Assembly endorsed the recommendation made by the World Conference of Ministers Responsible for Youth the 12 August be declared International Youth Day.

https://www.un.org/

Theme 2019:

“Transforming education.”

The theme of International Youth Day 2019, “Transforming education”, highlights efforts to make education more relevant, equitable and inclusive for all youth, including efforts by youth themselves. 

There are currently 1.8 billion young people between the ages of 10 and 24 in the world. This is the largest youth population ever. 

But 1 in 10 of the world’s children live in conflict zones and 24 million of them are out of school. Political instability, labour market challenges and limited space for political and civic participation have led to increasing isolation of youth in societies.

Rooted in Goal 4 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”.

credits: UN

https://www.un.org/

Youth engagement is crucial to bringing about more relevant, equitable and inclusive education. Youth-led organizations are transforming education by partnering with Governments, educational institutions and other stakeholders, lobbying and advocating education policies and developing complementary training programs. 

Joshua Wong

credits: AFP

via The Telegraph

Youth-led organizations are addressing barriers for youth on the basis of economic status, ethnic group, gender, and other characteristics; 

via Race Peace Campaign

https://raisingpeacecampaign.wordpress.com/

Updating education plans and school curricula to include lessons about peace, justice and the environment and climate change, among many other areas. 

Greta Thunberg

@GretaThunberg

Youth engagement is essential to the transformation of education into a means for inclusive youth development and sustainable development more broadly.

Olga Misik

credits: Vera Oleinikova

via BBC

"On #YouthDay, we celebrate all those who are working to transform education to make it more inclusive, accessible & relevant to today’s world."

Antonio Guterres, on Twitter

Let's talk Malala Yousafzai, Greta Thunberg, Olga Misik, Emma González and Joshua Wong. Five young activists who are changing some important issues in their countries and all over the world. They are educated, developed critical thinking and they know how to fight for values: girls education, democracy, climate change and gun control.

credits: unknown

via Google Images

Education:

International Youth Day 2019 will highlight good practices and lessons learned in the efforts undertaken to ensure that education is relevant, equitable and inclusive for all youth. It will also sketch out the road ahead for the various stakeholders engaged in this endeavour.

This year’s theme highlights efforts to make education more inclusive and accessible for all youth, including efforts by youth themselves.

Are your school celebrating #YouthDay? Planning a special activity? UN wants to know! Tweet or email at youth@un.org

https://www.facebook.com/UNYouthEnvoy/

Spread the word:

• Use #YouthDay #TransformingEducation #SDG4  for all your tweets on the International Youth Day
• 
  
• Follow on twitter @UN4Youth | @UNDESASocial and on Facebook at: facebook.com/UN4Youth

"The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education."

Martin Luther King. Jr.

G-Souto

12.08.2019

Copyright © 2019G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

Schools : International Youth Day : Youth2030 by GinaSouto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Schools : Universal Children's Day

credits: UNICEF

https://www.unicef.org/

"Every child has the right to grow up healthy and strong, to be educated and protected, and to have a fair chance in life."

United Nations Universal Children’s Day was established in 1954 and is celebrated on November 20th each year to promote international togetherness, awareness among children worldwide, and improving children's welfare.

November 20th is an important date as it is the date in 1959 when the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child. It is also the date in 1989 when the UN General assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Since 1990, Universal Children's Day also marks the anniversary of the date that the UN General Assembly adopted both the declaration and the convention on children's rights.

https://www.facebook.com/Universal-Childrens-Day-

"Mothers and fathers, teachers, nurses and doctors, government leaders and civil society activists, religious and community elders, corporate moguls and media professionals as well as young people and children themselves can play an important part in making Universal Children's Day relevant for their societies, communities and nations."

United Nations

Universal Children's Day offers each of us an inspirational entry-point to advocate, promote and celebrate children's rights, translating into dialogues and actions that will build a better world for Children.

Google Doodle Children's Day

credits: Anvita Prashant Telang 

of Vibgyor High School in Balewadi, Pune

https://www.google.com/doodles/

"In the current stressful times, greatest joys of life are often hidden in simple things, thus I would like to teach everyone to take time to enjoy every moment of life and appreciate the simple things around us."

Anvita Prashant Telang

Google is marking the day with a Doodle in its search engines around multiple countries, the UN children's body, Unicef, launched a short stories week to celebrate the day and to mark the agency's 70th anniversary.  

Tiny Stories
https://www.unicef.org/tinystories/

More than 200 prominent writers penned "tiny stories" - each around seven lines long - to highlight Children’s Day and the challenges many of the world's poorest and most disadvantaged children still face. 

Michelle Nkamankeng, South Africa
https://www.unicef.org/tinystories/

“As writers we are able to advocate through the simplicity of storytelling. With this worthy and necessary campaign, we advocate for the protection of the rights of precious children all over the world,” 

Nigerian author Chimamanda Adichie

“It is shocking to see that the lives of many children are still so heavily impacted by the horror of conflict, inequality, poverty and discrimination. I hope these Tiny Stories can remind the world that we must sustain our commitment to all of these children whose lives and futures are at stake,” 

Paloma Escudero, Unicef 

A boy tracking on railway tracks to cross 
from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia into Serbia 

credits: UNICEF/NYHQ2015-2203/Georgiev

http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/

Some 50 million children have been uprooted from home, more than half by conflict, the UN Children's Fund, UNICEF, said in September 2016.

In a new report on the global challenge, the agency highlights that children and youngsters make up a growing proportion of those seeking shelter outside their countries of origin.

UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake said Universal Children’s Day was "an annual opportunity to recommit ourselves to protecting the rights of every child".   

"These children are the future leaders of their societies. The future engines of their national economies. The future parents and protectors of the next generation. 

“When we protect their rights, we are not only preventing their suffering. We are not only safeguarding their lives. We are protecting our common future.”

https://twitter.com/unicef

Education:
"We must confront the truth that around the world the rights of millions of children are being violated"
@UNICEF

In many developed countries, children have never had it so good, with access to education, health care, the internet and much more.

But millions more are facing unprecedented upheaval. More than 50 million children have been uprooted from their homes due to conflict, poverty and climate change while millions more face violence in their communities. According to the UN, around 263 million children do not attend school and last year nearly six million children under five died from mostly preventable diseases.

Children in Syria
credits: REUTERS
https://img.washingtonpost.com/

Children in Syria are living in fear every day. The relentless bombardment forced schools in east Aleppo to close "for the safety of students and teachers, after the barbarous aerial strikes", 

Ali al-Za'atari, humanitarian coordinator for Syria  & Kevin Kennedy, regional humanitarian coordinator

Children evacuated from a Syrian school

credits: Getty Images

https://www.thesun.co.uk/

Inside Syria, more than 2 million children and adolescents aren’t in school, while 600,000 school-age refugees don’t have access to learning, according to UNICEF.

The situation is particularly precarious inside the war zone where there’s a shortage of teachers and textbooks, and school buildings are fair game for battle. Last year alone, at least 160 children were killed in attacks on Syrian schools, according to UNICEF.

“They’re being violated around the world, in every country, wherever children are the victims of violence, abuse and exploitation,"  

Even today, seven children were killed as Aleppo hospital – where kids were being treated for a brutal gas attack – is blown to pieces by Syrian warplanes.

"On this Children’s Day, we must confront the uncomfortable truth that around the world, the rights of millions of children are being violated every day," Anthony Lake, Unicef Executive Director, said. 

• Schools:

Schools and teachers use the day to tell students about their rights as kids. Students are encouraged to think about the differences between themselves and others as well as children in other countries who are less fortunate. And so many die.

credits:  UNICEF/UN019996/Gilbertson VII Photo

https://www.unicef.org/

Some words from the UNICEF report:

In rich and poor countries around the globe, education has long served as a great leveller of opportunity because it helps people realize their potential and contribute to their communities and the world. Good education increases knowledge, sparks innovation, builds skills that drive growth and prosperity, and fosters inclusive societies. 
For generations, quality and equitable education has provided children with a pathway out of deprivation. What has been true for the prospects of individual children has also held true for the future of nations. And yet, millions of children around the world are still denied their right to education because of factors they do not control – factors such as poverty, gender, ethnicity, disability or geographical location. 
Extreme poverty, armed conflict, natural disasters and the impacts of climate change also deprive children of the chance to go to school and learn.

Infographic: Syria Children's of War

credits: Jerome Delay / AP Images for NBC News

source: UNICEF

http://media3.s-nbcnews.com/

Some thoughts:
Teachers in their own countries have a crucial role on the alert of poverty cases among their students.

Many schools and other educational institutions make a special effort to inform children of their rights according to the Declaration of the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. 

Teachers alert their students to armed conflict countries, natural disasters and the impacts of climate change which deprive children of the chance to go to school and learn. 

The evidence is all around us. All this affect children disproportionately, and the most disadvantaged and vulnerable children most of all.
"Children who do not have the opportunity to develop the skills they will need to compete as adults can neither break these vicious cycles in their own lives nor give their children a chance to fulfil their potential. Their societies, too, are deprived of the full contribution they might have made."

Resources:
Tiny Stories: Writers Unite for Children's Rights
https://www.unicef.org/tinystories/
For Every Child, Hope
Unicef 70: 1946-2016
https://www.unicef.org/publications/index_93308.html
UNICEF on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/user/unicef

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” 
Confucius

G-Souto

20.11.2016

Copyright © 2016G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

Schools : Universal Children's Day by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. 

International Youth Day 2014

International Youth Day

https://en.unesco.org/

The mental health of young women and men is important for the health of society as a whole."  

Irina Bokova, UNESCO Director-General

Today we celebrate the International Youth Day. The United Nations define “youth” as persons between the ages of 15 and 24 years. 

Youth is a period of dramatic change, and the journey from childhood to adulthood can be complex, raising a host of mental health issues.

Youth with mental health conditions can often experience stigma and discrimination, which in turn can lead to exclusion and/or discourage people from seeking help for fear of being negatively ‘labelled’. Efforts are needed to overcome this stigma to ensure that young people with mental health conditions can lead full and healthy lives free of isolation and unnecessary shame, and that they openly seek the services and support they need.

Theme 2014: "Youth and Mental Health."

The theme of this International Youth Day is “Youth and Mental Health,” under the motto Mental Health Matters.

Mental Health Matters

https://en.unesco.org/

Aims:

"UN DESA, through the Focal Point on Youth, and the Inter-Agency Network on Youth Development, promotes a multi-dimensional approach to addressing the challenges faced by young people with mental health issues, including tackling stigma and promoting social inclusion to enable all young people to achieve their aspirations and goals."

UN

Education:

"I was depressed and paranoid", "I was anxious and out of control", "I had severe depression, I couldn't get out of bed and had difficulty speaking to large groups of people".

These are the experiences of a group of students struggling with their mental health while at university, and they're not alone.

Blogging students | The Guardian

Mental health problems are common among students: one in five consider themselves to have a mental illness

The lack of dialogue leaves many sufferers feeling isolated. 

From 12 June until International Youth Day on 12 August, the United Nations ran a campaign to draw awareness to the importance of reducing stigma surrounding youth with mental health conditions. 

Depression
credits: Getty Images

http://www.theguardian.com/

I am sure that you have joined the campaign on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest to help raise awareness;

You used your artistic talents to raise awareness and sent a work to the Mental Health Matters Campaign.



Some information:

Selected written, photo, video and artwork entries will be chosen to be included in UN publication ‘Social Inclusion of Youth with Mental Health Conditions’ launched on International Youth Day and in our poster design for our IYD event. 

Selected written, photo, video and artwork entries will be showcased at UN event on 12 August at UN Headquarters, and online, via Pinterest and Facebook throughout the campaign. 

If not, you are still on time to raise awareness. 

Depression

via Google Images

Activities :

• Call on your school, college, organization or community to create and improve services and programmes tailored for youth with mental health conditions.

• Ask your school, university or community centre to hold a discussion about mental health

• Create an “info point” about youth with mental health conditions in your town/village, at your high school, youth club or university.

• Organize a Google+ Hangout or online chat to discuss for instance stigma and discrimination that youth with mental health conditions often experience.

http://www.un.org/

Raise awareness via social media : 

Of course you can be a campaigner as well! Use #MentalHealthMatters and #UN4Youth, and join UN on Facebook,Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.

Don't forget to check the map of the events around the world.

Mental Health Matters! In Youth Day, let’s use this opportunity to raise awareness about the difficulties facing young women and men, and to support them so that they can fully achieve their aspirations.

You can be part of these efforts !

G-Souto

12.08.2014
Copyright © 2014G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®



International Youth Day 2014 by GinaSouto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.