Port Moresby schools help children know their rights

Two schools in Port Moresby celebrated World Children’s Day (WCD) with the support of Equal Playing Field (EPF) on Thursday.
Gerehu Secondary School and Hagara Primary School had an informative and fun-filled celebrating with the theme, “Children are taking over the world and turning it blue”.
The students joined others around the world in the “Go Blue” campaign that celebrated children, supported children’s rights and amplified their voices.
Both schools started the day with an assembly where members of the school action group (SAG) shared information about the event and children’s rights through poems and an information session.
The students then broke up into their house colours and participated in fun activities exercising article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child, “I have the right to play and rest”.
Students of the SAG organised the activities in both school with the support of their teachers and EPF volunteers.
EPF is a non-profit organisation (formerly known as Rugby League Against Violence) that uses sports to engage adolescent boys and girls in open and frank discussions on gender equality and healthy relationships in Port Moresby, Autonomous Region of Bougainville and the Solomon Islands.
SAG coordinator Alicia Sion said EPF for School Programme (EPF4S) was conducted in those schools.
“SAG is a programme we run in partnership with the school after the EPF4S.
“The SAG is a group of students that want to utilise the skills they have learnt in the EPF4S programme and want to do more for their school.
“They organise and implement activities that promote respectful relationship and a non-violent school.
“The EPF4S provided resources that they needed for the games and activities and SAGs provides an avenue for students to grow and be advocates for respectful relationships and gender equality.”
Sion said as a woman and child rights organisation it was important that EPF facilitated the event to allow school action group to share about their rights.
“Not only did other students learn about their basic rights as a child and play fun games (exercising one of their rights to play) but the SAG members got to learn new leadership skills that they would not have learnt otherwise,” she said.