Children get together to review the National Baseline Survey on the Life Experiences of Adolescents

The Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare and UNICEF have conducted a national survey on the life experiences of adolescents. This important document looks at the prevalence of emotional, physical and sexual abuse against children in the country. Children from Zvandiri were thrilled to be given the opportunity to review this document and to feedback what they think should be done about it.
Last week, children from Zvandiri came together to develop a photo series in which we ask adults to help us to report abuse. For example, we were thrilled to have permission from Police Headquarters to be photographed with our local friendly police officers, showing the important role they have to play in supporting us. We will post these photos, taken by Linette and Andy, on the website soon. We also had great fun creating our own drawings on glass, to tell our own stories and write our messages for policy makers.
We then had a perfect day yesterday when UNICEF invited Team Zvandiri to have a little get together with other children who had traveled from various provinces for the launch. It is amazing what children are doing across Zimbabwe. There was this group which comprises of teenagers called Africa Community Publishing Development Trust (ACPD) and they are from different provinces. They had paintings and poems highlighting their views on violence and abuse against children. All in all it was a wonderful day!
We look forward to hearing the Government’s response to the document. To every child out there in Zimbabwe this means children are being put first and it feels good to know that someone out there is looking out for you and it is indeed a victory.