BY: MASHUDU MADADU
Issues affecting children on the African Continent will be in the spotlight during a three-day African Children’s Summit, to be hosted in Johannesburg in August this year.
500 children are expected to attend the event, both physically and virtually. The Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund briefed the media about the preparations for the Summit.
The 2024 African Children’s Summit is endorsed by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The summit aims to address all the social challenges facing children, with children deliberating on how this should be achieved.
“Education in the theme falls in line with the 2024 day of the African child,” says George Kande, Kenyan activist.
“First interaction with children fighting for their rights was during the Soweto uprising there it was suited for the summit to be held in South Africa,” says Brian King, Zambian activist.
Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund believes Africa’s Children’s Summit will empower children. The inaugural Africa Children’s Summit was held in Nairobi, Kenya in April last year.
This year’s edition of the Pan African children’s conference will see children from some of the African states, deliberate and engage with the powers that be on burning issues.
This year’s conveners emphasized the importance of such gatherings. “It doesn’t help for Africa to have a young population, yet we don’t invest in the youth, by investing in the youth. We are investing for the future of the continent,” says Dr Linda Ncube-Nkomo, Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund.
“In most African states’ children do not have social security. These are some of the issues that should be deliberated upon during the summit,” says Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, Social Development Deputy Minister.
The Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund says registration for the summit is now live and only those with a letter of endorsement from the Fund will be eligible to physically attend the event.
