Journal Entry 9 - Zaire Smalls

I'm part of an organization called global kids. At global kids we hold an annual youth conference. The goal of Global Kids is to make NYC youth global citizens, making them aware of the issues the world around us faces and what we can do to help. So every year there is a different topic. This year our topic is "Child Rights." Since the US and Somalia are the only countries of the United Nations who haven't ratified the "Convention of Rights of a Child" (CRC), we used this as our purpose.

Our focus was to use the CRC to show the rights children should have compared to the rights they actually have in the world. In the workshop I created and lead, "Children's Health," we took a look at Zimbabwe, China, Britain and India's health care systems and what services children receive as well as how they are paid for. Why they dont match up wtih the CRC and how we can change this. It was a good workshop, people learned a lot.

The wholoe conference was wonderful and there was a petition and videos about the ratification of the CRC in teh US. Rosario Dawson came to the conference and spoke about her direct role in l I Am an Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World, written by the same woman who authored the Vagina Monologues.

Journal Entry 9 - Zaire Smalls