Monday, November 16, 2009

Davao City to celebrate Universal Children Day on November 20

The city government of Davao is spearheading the celebration of the Universal Children's Day on Nov. 20 in recognition of promoting the best interest of children.

City councilor Angela Librado, action officer of Mayor Rodrigo Duterte for children's concern, said the celebration was meaningful because it would be the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

She said more programs had been pushed by the Davao City government and with that, the city was named as most child-friendly city. No other city throughout the nation has been doing it, she said.

Librado said many child related projects had been implemented in the city, although she said more push would needed if only to make a balance between advocacy and issues related to children.

"What is worth knowing is that the level of awareness on the Rights of Children is high among the children themselves and the adults," she said.

She said they were focusing their programs on the rights of children so that advocacies would be sustained.

She admitted, however, that the institutionalization of programs included ordinances and laws for protection of children, but the implementation had remained low.

Meanwhile, Librado said the Children's Month and the City Council for the Welfare of Children, with the active support and participation of the Davao City Sangguniang Kabataan Federation, made possible the three-day Citywide Children's Congress with 100 children representatives elected their representatives to the Executive Committee of the Davao City Council for the Welfare of Children (DCCWC).

She said this was a clear manifestation of the growing children's participation in the city's governance even as she said that the city government had been showing its commitment to the goals of survival, protection, development and participation of the children.
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