Last week the United Nations commemorated the International Day of the Rights of the Child and so did St. Maarten with more than a week of events. At the opening there were as usual nice opening speeches by dignitaries from both sides of the island, who all pointed out the strides made for the youth in St. Maarten/St. Martin and the work still needed to be done.
The most interesting part came when the children from various schools exhibited different plays, songs and presentations on the rights of the child that they deemed important. There were presentations on sexual harassment, the child's Right to know their parents and various songs sending great words of encouragement to the youth in attendance.
But the best part of the event was looking at the program of the week and seeing how many other organizations hosted events therefore making the celebration much more effective and including more of society. This is what SSM has always been about inclusion, participation and awareness.
If the 6 days of events for our youth were not enough, the SSM movement was invited to an annual neighborhood cookout at the home of web reporter Bibi Shaw, where in celebration of the birthday of her eldest son her family, neighbors and friends have a little party and feed over 40 kids in the neighborhood. What a great initiative as many people from different parts of society came out to celebrate and support the annual celebration.
Amidst all the celebration however, we were alerted of a terrible situation on the same street where our foundation witnessed first hand a group of children, presumably hungry, naked residing in an unfinished dilapidated dwelling with no windows. This is a harsh reality that still too much children on this island have to go through. They neighbors have tried all they can to get help for the children but an aggressive parent who may be under the influence does not allow anyone to help.
The children and parents are supposed to be Dutch citizens living on the French side, still the authorities have a responsibility and this is where cross border cooperation is necessary, hopefully something can be done about this grave situations so these children can be given the proper care needed.
In closing, the Soualiga Social Movement would like to congratulate the participating schools, St. Maarten Promoting Young Ambassadors Foundation, the St. Maarten Youth Council, the St. Maarten Youth Parliament, the St. Maarten Early Childhood Development Association, the Voice of Our Children Foundation, Ms. Bibi Shaw, neighbors and family on a job well done through cooperation on spreading the awareness of the Rights of the Child.
Participating together, including everyone and spreading awareness.
Soualiga Social Movement