Abstract
Wenchuan Earthquake, which took place on May 12th, made tens of thousands of people lose their lives and left hundreds of thousands of people homeless. Confronted with disaster, children always suffer the most.
All circles of society have offered timely support to disaster-affected people, especially children after the earthquake. We feel glad to see that the sense of responsibilities and care from the whole society has been displayed, that the risk reduction has been promoted and that a large number of professionals have headed to disaster-affected areas providing psychosocial assistance for children while numerous numbers of professionals and volunteers are caring for the children from various perspectives. Besides the release work had done in Sichuan, a few provinces and cities responded actively on the appeal from Central Government to accept those children who affected by the earthquake and can not go back to normal education and life and relocate them in other places.
From the point of view of child rights, great importance and professional support have been placed on children’s rights of survival, protection and development so far during the emergence response. Voices of the children, however, are left unheard while adults are making suggestions and offering help. It is commonly found that adults are more dominating groups while children are made more passive to receive support in activities and support for the children. Their actual needs and wants as well as roles in disaster risk reduction work have not been identified either. It has not been concerned how children’s initiatives and motivations could be enhanced. The right to participation is one of the four categories rights according to UN Child Rights Convention. Participation is not only the basic rights to children, but also the fundamental needs for their development. In related affairs, as well as in the process of public risk deduction, children shall act as active participants and contributors instead of passive receivers.
Therefore, based on the current mechanism of child participation, Save the Children conducted a “Hand in Hand” Happy Summer Camp on Promoting Child Participation in Disaster Risk Reduction in July 2008. 40 disaster-affected children, who were from Sichuan Province and have been displaced in Yunnan Province temporarily, were invited to participate in the event with other 40 children mainly the members of Children’s Committee of Save the Children China Programme and a few children observers. With the way of “Child to Child”, children’s needs and roles as well as how to promote child participation during the process of risk reduction were discussed.
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