“Ara Wede: A Vote for Children”, a unique program by the UNICEF to ensure that every vote cast at the presidential election will be a vote to uphold rights of children, was launched recently.
The program calls upon the 35 presidential candidates to commit and take action to alleviate six critical issues affecting six million children in Sri Lanka.
UNICEF said this is an important opportunity at a time the country celebrates the 30th anniversary of becoming a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Sri Lanka was one of the first signatories to the CRC.
“Sri Lanka has a proud history of prioritising the needs of its children and it has shown real gains in healthcare, education and poverty over many years,” UNICEF country Representative Tim Sutton said.
Create awareness
He was speaking at a media roundtable organised to invite the fourth estate to actively take part in the program to create awareness among the people and the presidential candidates of their outstanding commitments, at the Hilton Hotel recently.
“But there are still many children who cannot reach their full potential due to various issues and we believe when it comes to child rights no one should be left behind ,” he added. UNICEF has identified six major challenges that need the attention of the highest office in the country.
The country has to over come these challenges to allow its most important resource – the children- to enjoy an equal chance to live, learn, grow and succeed in a rapidly changing and increasingly complex world.
An ad campaign, titled Ara-Wede has been launched by UNICEF to create awareness among the presidential hopefuls on these areas of concern with ‘ending child malnutrition forever,’ being the first and the foremost.
The other commitments are - education system to prepare children for the future, end child poverty, ban damaging physical punishment against children, create an inclusive and peaceful Sri Lanka and fight climate change and prepare the country for its effects.
The commercials in all three languages will be constantly telecast on TV to remind the candidates of these commitments to the children.
Sri Lanka is one of the ten worst low and middle income countries and according to UNICEF with 11 per cent of children in the 5-9 grades annually dropping out of school. A study conducted in Colombo, Galle, Batticaloa and Polonnaruwa has revealed that corporal punishment is still used in many homes and schools. More than 70 per cent of employers have said state graduates are not employable.
“Our education system is still catching up to today’s needs,” Sutton said adding that the state education system is far from being geared to future needs. The Country Representative said Sri Lanka was the second most vulnerable country to climate change and the most innocent victims of its ill effects were the children.
“Why we need to speak to candidates is because we want the leadership to commit on these issues,” he said adding that although presidents and politicians come and go they provide leadership only to the bureaucracy, hence they wanted a pledge from the candidates on protecting these rights to which the country has committed 30 years ago.
Website
The UN agency set up to protect rights of most disadvantaged children around the world has also launched a website WWW.ARAWADE.LK for this cause for which they agree that there is a unique opportunity before the country today as it is facing a crucial election. “We cannot allow this moment to pass,” the country representative said.