JOHANNESBURG. The World’s Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child (WCPRC) announces three finalists for the $140 000 in prize money awarded for work helping children, including those who are homeless, or working as domestic workers, or sex slaves. The Swedish NGO, with Nelson Mandela and Sweden’s Queen Silvia as a patrons, has started a co-operation with the Royal Bafokeng Nation outside Rustenburg.
The prize announcement comes at the kick-off to series of workshops that the WCPRC is holding in South Africa this week, hosted by the Royal Bafokeng Nation.
The WCPRC is the world’s largest educational process about children’s rights and democracy and Bojanala can become the first district in the world where all schools work with the WCPRC and take part in its Global Vote, the organization says. Through the workshops, 2,000 teachers, principals and school administrators will be educated.
The WCPRC empowers children and young people all over the world so that they can make their voices heard and demand respect for their rights in accordance with the UN Child Convention. As part of this process, the children award their prizes for outstanding contributions to the rights of the child. The prize money helps some of the world’s most vulnerable children to a better life.
The workshops are a result of co-operation between WCPRC, Queen Mother Semane Bonolo Molotlegi, Bojanala Platinum District Municipality and Department of Education, North West Provincial Government and office of the Premier and the Bafokeng Rasimone Platinum Mine.
The three finalists of the prize are:
● Josefina Condori, Peru, who for 15 years has fought for girls working as maids in the city of Cusco in Peru, often in slave-like conditions. She became a maid herself at the age of seven and had to leave her family then.
● Agnes Stevens, USA, who has fought for homeless children in the US for 20 years. There are one million homeless children in the USA. Agnes runs School on Wheels for thousands of homeless children, with the help of hundreds of volunteer tutors.
● Somaly Mam, Cambodia, who for 12 years has fought to save girls who are sold as slaves to brothels. Somaly was herself a sex slave as a child. Her struggle has earned her many enemies a nd death threats. Her own 14 year-old daughter was kidnapped, raped and sold to a brothel.
16 million students at 35,000 schools in 87 countries participate in the WCPRC. In 2007, 5.2 million of those children participated in the Global Vote that determined who received the Global Friends’ Award. In South Africa, close to 10,000 schools with 5 million students are registered as Global Friends.
No country has had as many WCPRC Laureates as South Africa and India. They include Hector Pieterson and Nkosi Johnson. In 2005, millions of children voted for Nelson Mandela and Graça Machel, in the Global Vote, honoring them with The Global Friends’ Award.
The patrons of the WCPRC include Nelson Mandela and Queen Silvia of Sweden.
This year’s prize ceremony will be held on 18 April at Gripsholm Castle in Mariefred, Sweden, where the Queen will help the children to give out the prizes. All three final candidates will be honored.
The recipients of the prizes will be announced at a press conference at 12 noon on 16 April, at Södra Teatern, Mosebacke Torg, Stockholm, Sweden.
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