Social/Kiddies
‘What Adults Can Learn From Kids’
Society tells us that kids or young people are selfish and impulsive, that their power and self determination has to be limited for their own protection. What the kids said years ago are still relevant today and tomorrow. ‘What can adults learn from kids?’ The answer is quite a lot.
This collection of speeches by extraordinary young people is testament to what can be achieved by the next generation. From climate change to disability rights, these are children and young adults proving that, regardless of age, when we dare to care and speak out, grownups in power take note, and can even learn a thing or two.
Joan of Arc: French Heroine Who Fought During The Hundred Years’ War
As a teenage peasant girl living in medieval France, Joan of Arc began to hear voices she believed to be those of angels and of God. The voices instructed her to fight for the French king, Charles VII, during the Hundred Years’ War. Adopting men’s dress, she demanded to meet with military leaders such as the Duke of Lorraine and eventually Charles VII himself. Her persistence and conviction won her their trust. At the time, the French army was also in desperate straits. Perhaps the fact that so many other options had been exhausted and failed made Charles VII more open to the unorthodox choice of allowing a woman and a young, poor one at that to lead his troops.
Joseph Kim: North korean-american human rights activist
Joseph Kim grew up in utter deprivation, living in impoverished conditions during the North Korean famine of the mid-1990s. North Korea’s isolation and secrecy make it impossible to know the precise number of casualties due to starvation, but estimates range from a few hundred thousand to over one million. Joseph’s father was one of those casualties.
When Joseph was just sixteen years old, he made the decision to attempt an illegal – and highly dangerous – escape from the infamously oppressive Hermit Kingdom.
Severn Cullis-Suzuki: Environmental Activist
When she was only twelve years old, Canadian climate change activists Severn Cullis Suzuki delivered a brave message to an audience at the United Nations. In her speech, she said that many of the world’s most privileged countries have failed to do their part in solving the climate crisis and providing assistance to the impoverished.
Now, more than two decades on from her 1992 speech, the recording of her talk still makes the rounds on social media as a viral video entitled ‘The Girl Who Silenced the World for 5 Minutes’. Her message, which illustrates in bleak terms the consequences of failing to solve climate issues, has struck a chord with modern listeners.
Malala Yousafzai: Nobel Prize Winner And Education Advocate
Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani activist for peace and human rights, particularly passionate about equal access to education for women and girls. Although Malala had been an activist for years, writing for a BBC blog as early as 2009, it was in October 2012 that people around the world first learned her name. A Taliban gunman shot her on a school bus in a retaliatory attack over her public writings on education and life in Pakistan’s Swat Valley during instability caused by clashes between the forces of the Taliban and the Pakistani military. Worldwide condemnation of the violent action followed and Malala was transferred to a UK hospital for medical care.
Adenike Titilope Oladosu (born 1994) is a Nigerian climate activist, eco-feminist and the initiator of the Fridays For Future movement in Nigeria. She specialises in equality, security and peace building across Africa, especially in the Lake Chad region.
She was recognised as one of the three young black activists in Africa trying to combat climate chan-ge alongside Vanessa Nakate and Elizabeth Wathuti by Greenpeace UK for the UK Black History Month and in December 2019, Oladosu attended the COP25 gathering in Spain as a Nigerian youth delegate where she gave a “moving address” about climate change in Africa and how it affects lives.
Oladosu began organizing for climate activism after she started university. She saw farmers and herdsmen angry because their land was becoming more arid and other communities who had never faced flooding had their farmlands swept away. She began advocating in communities, schools, and public places to speak to people about the climate crisis. She encouraged them to plant trees and educate their peers.
In 2019, Oladosu was the recipient of the Ambassador of Conscience Award from Amnesty Interna-tional Nigeria and she spoke to world leaders at the UN youth climate summit. She attended the 2019 Climate change conference in Mad-rid along with Greta Thun-berg where she drew the attention of world leaders towards the Nigerian and African climate movements
Hadiqa Bashir: Activist Against Child Marriage
An activist from Pakistan, has been raising awareness in her community and around the world about the negative effects of child marriage. Hadiqa herself suffered pressure from her grandmother to marry at the age of eleven, only narrowly avoiding this thanks to support from a sympathetic uncle, the rights activist Erfaan Hussein Babak. Her grandmother was furious and the disagreement led to a months-long estrangement between them but it did not dissuade Hadiqa from her next move: campaigning to ensure that no girl would have to go through such a situation ever again.
Nkosilathi Nyathi:
A UNICEF-Climate Youth Ambassador and a proud Zimbabwean and African youth under the Zimbabwe Youth Council.
Welcome to Victoria Falls. It is also home to the magnificent Victoria Falls or in our local Lozi language, Mosi-oa-tunya which means the ‘Smoke that Thunders.’
He grew up in Chinotimba township in poverty, with everybody struggling all around him. He noticed something that affected the poverty of his community, family and friends, just as much as all the economic and social problems and the political issues they face in his country.
According to him, “It was the environment! Our natural world around us, our atmosphere and our biodiversity.
We are experiencing the worst drought, right here in my backyard, in 100 years. I live it. My family lives it. Farmers have had little harvest for years now. When it doesn’t rain we suffer. And now when it does rain, it floods and we suffer.”
Sparsh Shah: Disability Rights Activist:
Sparsh Shah, who also shares his music under the name Purhythm, is an American disability rights advocate, motivational speaker and musician. He derived the name ‘Purhythm’ from combining the words ‘pure’ and ‘rhythm’ because he describes his rap as family-friendly (pure) and also rhythmic. He has more than 300,000 followers on YouTube, and his cover of Eminem’s song, ‘Not Afraid’, has received more than 14 million views, even drawing the attention of Eminem’s record label, Shady records, who tweeted about him after the video went viral on YouTube.
Bana Alabed: Education And Human Rights Advocate, Syrian Refugee
A young survivor of the Syrian Civil War, a conflict that has killed civilians, uprooted families, and caused fear and instability throughout the region. She garnered public attention around the world through a Twitter account she maintained through the 2016 bombing and siege of the city of Aleppo; the horrors of war gained special poignancy when communicated thro-ugh the eyes of a seven year-old girl.
After her school was destroyed and her father was injured in the siege, her family joined other civilians in fleeing the war-torn city; ultimately seeking refuge in Turkey.
Yola Mgogwana:
Born 2008 is a South African climate activist from Cape Town.
Mgogwana’s activism started in 2019, when she was just eleven years old, after she became concerned about pollution, unusual weather patterns, and a looming water crisis in her country. She has been an inspiration for youth in Africa to join her in her fight for climate justice. She has been hailed as South Africa’s answer to Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.
Mgogwana is a student at Yolomela Primary School in Khayelitsha, one of Cape Town’s most impoverished townships. Her environmental educator is Xoli Fuyani, who is both a mentor and a key collaborator in her work, and is also the Environmental Education Coordinator at the Earthchild Project, a non-profit organization Mgogwana is connected with.
Mgogwana has been an active presenter in schools and has repeatedly urged the Government to take urgent action on climate change.
‘A society that cuts itself off from its youth severs its own lifeline; it is condemned to bleed to death.’
—Kofi Annan
It is the idea of God that family should exit. Children form part of the family. God loves family so much that Jesus was born into the family of Joseph.
Everyone’s family is good and important. Children should not look down on their family whether they are rich or poor.
Children should respect and honour their family and foster love among their siblings. They should work together and make peace in the family. They should always stand in the gap. It is good for family members to carry all along since everyone may not be doing well.
The Christianity that children learn is practised in family. Faith-based organisations do a great job in moulding children’s character. Those are the behaviours that children exhibit towards siblings in family.
Every child born in a family is there for a purpose. A baby born into a family is supplying something. It may be joy, wealth and so on. Everyone is important in a family.
Adolescents who have graduated from school but may not be contributing financially can do one or two things at home. You can engage in preparing meals at home while parents are away for a job or business. Contributing in house chores will go a long way to relieve parents of stress after a day’s job.
What do you contribute to your family, especially during holidays both in nuclear and extended family?
The family you were born is constant but friends are temporary. You can decide not to continue in friendship but you cannot cut off your family. No matter how bad you think your family is and you decide to leave home, you must surely return. Your friends can harbour you for a while.
The child’s first identity comes from the family. What the child learns first comes from the family.
Family is the centre of love and care. People have started playing down on marriage because of neglect on basics of family. Marriage starts today and and the next few months, it is threatened. Respect for family plays a crucial role in marriage.
No child grows without parental control and influence. If a child refuses to grow without taking instructions from parents, he may grow up being wild. There are consequences when children do not obey their parents. There are those who want to be rebellious against their parents. They should know that their length of days are tied to their parents.
Your bioligical parents know you more than every other person. There is the wisdom and knowledge your parents have that you do not so it is proper to listen to them before choosing carriers both in academics and job. A young man or woman can choose who to get married to, but a greater role in the choice of who to marry and the marriage proper comes from the parents.
They know what is best for you. No matter how modern trends will influence you and prove it wrong, parent is the key. No one can love you more than your parents because they are your blood.
A lot of parents have been traumatised due to the fact that children they nurtured and trained turned their back on them at older age. Children should not abandon their parents for any reason.
As you grow up, situations may arise in marriage when you decide it is over with your spouse, but no matter the level of provocation with your parents, they will not despise you. Parents will also play a role in that regard. Problem arises in every family but how it is handled matters a lot.
Some children honour their mentors more than their parents. Although there are parents who shy away from their responsibilities. It is important that parents take full responsibility of their children. You cannot bring a child to the planet earth and refuse to perform roles as a parent. But parents may not quantify what they spent from childhood to adolescence. That is a blessing children cannot get from another person.
There are people who have attributed their failure in life to the fact that their parents, especially mothers are witchcraft. It is wrong to feel that your mother is instrumental to your failure in life. The only way to success is hardwork.
Let money not determine the level of love for your parents. Wherever a child goes, family is constant.
Eunice Choko-Kayode
Naturally, when a child is born, it is the role of the father and mother to decide a suitable name for the child. The husband and wife normally discuss and suggest the English or vernacular name of the baby.
But sometimes, when a baby comes into a family, grandparents hearts are usually filled with joy to the extent that they want to answer present, by giving their own names not minding the fact that the biological parents have given theirs.
This happens mostly when the marriage is an inter-tribal one. It also happens even in intra-tribal marriage. Grandparents want equal representation as far as naming a child is concerned. They also have special names as a result of circumstances surrounding the birth of the child.
This is still happening till date.
A lot of people have viewed this in different ways but there is nothing wrong about it. The most important thing is that the child bears as many names as he or she can. But one thing is certain, the child must bear one name in school.
Should circumstance determine a child’s name?
Women who are more emotional are always eager to name their children considering the circumstances surrounding the child’s conception and arrival.
The issue of grandparents naming a child comes up mostly when it is the first of the family.
In naming children by some parents in the olden days, they named their children according to the days in the week in which they were born, like Sunday, Monday, Friday and so on.
You may be shocked to hear that whether a child is given 10 names by parents or grandparents, when he or she grows up, will decide to change. There are several cases where some persons decided to change especially when they feel that the names given by their parents and grandparents do not give them joy. If they are not doing well in life, they may claim that their misfortune is caused by the name their parents.
Competition among children in schools be it primary, (kindergarten) and secondary come in different forms. It can be Mathematics , debate, quiz, spelling bee,competition, from organisations like Cowbell, multi-national companies, faith-based organisations among others.
They are organised mostly for selected intelligent ones, the best among their peers to represent a class, school or group. Prizes are normally set aside for the best as well as consolation prizes for runners-up at the end of each session.
The question is, are children willing to accept defeat when they fail? As parents, guardians, can you encourage your children or wards to accept defeat instead of shouting and comparing them with others who may be performing better either in schools or outside.
Some parents may be blaming their children for not doing well in competitions. They will like to tell their children if others who may perform better have ten heads. Those group of parents blame their children for every failure.
For your children to do better in competition, the parents too must have emotional intelligence. When you continue to blame your children for failure, how intelligent are you?
Some parents always want their children to be in the 1st position and unhappy whenever they secure 2nd position. There were instances where children smashed their trophies because they never got the position they wanted to get and their parents supported them.
Children should be able to accept it whether they win or not. They should be encouraged for every performance. Discourage the issue of “shame, shame, shame, shame”.
A parent says she always tells her children to win even if they will fail. Always give them the mentality that they can win. Children should be given the impression that they can win prizes and laurels in every competition.
Parents should not isolate their children from others in the neighbourhood. Allow them to play with others. Don’t threaten your children that you may not pay their schools fees if they fail. Comparing them with others may encourage or discourage them.
Coming first or getting award as a first class student from the university sometimes does not mean that the person is the best. And if the child does not merit any award in the lower classes, does not mean that he can not merit first class also.
It should be noted that coming first in academic competition may not really mean that the competitor will be the best at work place or business.
Accepting defeat is a way to move higher. Even if a child who competed with others did not come first, there are consolation prizes for runners-up. When you advise the child to accept defeat, you are encouraging her to win in next competition.
Remember all children cannot be on the same knowledge level Their learning abilities defer.
Eunice Choko-Kayode
