World Children`s Day is celebrated annually on 20th November each year with the goal of enhancing children`s well-being and advocating for their rights. It also helps people around the world to work together and raise children`s awareness to improve their welfare. Even though the celebration of Children`s Day takes place on a variety of dates across the globe, World Children`s Day is still set aside to honour children everywhere.
Walsall playwright and poet Ian Henery has been commissioned to write a poem to mark the event and it will be broadcast on 101.8 WCR FM. Ian claims that he was inspired to write it by something he read by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India.
"World Children`s Day is observed in India on 14th November" explained Ian Henery which happens to be the birth anniversary of Nehru. This day is commonly referred to as Bal Diwas. Nehru wrote "children are like buds in a garden and should be carefully and lovingly nurtured as they are the future of the nation and the citizens of tomorrow" and these words became my tribute to World Children`s Day."
The first celebration of World Citizen Day, also known as Universal Children`s Day, was held in 1954. On 20th November 1959 the UN General Assembly passed the Declaration of the Rights of the Child. In addition, the Convention of Rights of the Child was ratified by the UN General Assembly on this day in 1989. As a result this day has been marked as the anniversary of the date that the UN General Assembly adopted both the Declaration and the Convention of the Rights of the Child.
"If there were no children in the world" said Ian Henery "it would be depressing, long and without laughter. For this reason, in my opinion, children are the most priceless creation in all of existence. We should do everything we can to protect, guide and love them because they are our greatest treasures."
Ian`s poem is below and will be broadcast on 101.8 WCR on FM, online, Spotify and Listen Again on 20th November 2022 for World Children`s Day.
World Children`s Day (villanelle) (After Jawaharlal Nehru, first Prime Minister of India)
Children are like buds on flowers or trees,
They should be nurtured and lovingly raised:
Children`s Day, let`s applaud their honesty.
Our future, children have sincerity,
They are innocent and speak truths unglazed;
Children are like buds on flowers or trees.
World Children`s Day, from the Thames to Yangtze,
Global togetherness, children be praised;
Children`s Day, let`s applaud their honesty.
Youngster`s laughter sets our cynicism free,
They teach us things as we look on, amazed:
Children are like buds on flowers or trees.
Innocents should have a childhood carefree,
Uncorrupted by a world that is crazed;
Children`s Day, let`s applaud their honesty.
So Happy Children`s Day!
By world-wide decree
We can learn from children, look on unfazed;
Children are like buds on flowers or trees -
Children`s Day - let`s applaud their honesty.
