African Child Day not celebrated in Bor
By Thon Philip Aleu
June 18, 2009 (BOR) – Authorities in Jonglei capital Bor failed to mark African Child Day on June 16, 2009 as done for the first time last year.
There is no official statement explaining the reluctance of the State to recount how much is still needed to liberate the children whose rights has been violated through abduction and heavy labor among others. Efforts made to reach concern were futile but schools were on holidays. Government offices worked normally.
In Jonglei State, children abduction is a common practice but perpetrators go unpunished. Over 200 children crowd a classroom making learning situation virtually hindered and unbearable. Another burning issue in Bor town, the public say, is the continuous church hymns teaching on school’s days. Early marriages, forced labor, denied learning rights and limited health services are some constraints stranding children’s grooming in South Sudan.
The African Child Day, which began in 1991 in South Africa after independence to commemorate children killed while protesting against the then White dominated Apartheid government, was first celebrated in Southern Sudan in 2007. A year ago authorities in Jonglei State celebrated the event for the first time.
Leading the ceremony on June 16, 2008 was Gov. Kuol Manyang Juuk who promised to build a cultural center as “prompted” by poems and riddles children represented then.
“It is these good poems and riddles you represented in excellent English that prompted me to promise building a cultural centre,” he said. On June 16, 2009 – a year on, the governor’s pledge is yet to come into effect.
However, Mr. Manyang’s proposal during the celebration that year for a short schools’ holiday be adopted became effective when schools opened on February 2, 2009 – one and months holidays as opposed to the old system of three months long holidays.
Lang-baar primary school pupils were shocked on Tuesday when they found the Free Square empty. “A ghost ground,” one child yelled wondering “where are the leaders to interact on this important day.”
(ST)