China Caring for Children's Minds

Home>>Life

Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, April 27, 2002

China Caring for Children's Minds

Sign your name to provide children with health and safety, to give them knowledge and education; pledge to provide children with peace and happiness, to endow them with dignity and rights.

DISCUSSION

CHINESE

SEND TO FRIEND

Sign your name to provide children with health and safety, to give them knowledge and education; pledge to provide children with peace and happiness, to endow them with dignity and rights.

In the Say Yes For Children global campaign, China has over 20 million participants or one fifth of those of the rest of the world combined, the ratio of China's population to the world's.

China launched the campaign a year ago, a prelude to next month 's United Nations General Assembly's Special Session on Children.

Participants endorsed the campaign by making ten pledges, for example that no child would be ignored, harming or exploiting children was banned, and children would be protected against wars.

They chose three pledges for the country to focus on - protecting the ecological environment for children, ensuring their rights to education, and caring for their minds.

About 14% of participants highlighted the importance of protecting ecological environments for children. Youth expressed concern over the future of the environment. "The last thing I want to see is a tear as the last trickle of water and green only found in drawings," said Zhu Jun'an, a child from Zhejiang Province.

Children blamed adults for the deteriorating environment. "Benthamism and ignorance" were the cause behind the problem, many children believe.

In their eyes, the most serious environmental problems are water pollution, atmospheric pollution, polluted food and trash which encroaches on people's living space. They urged efforts to plant trees,the inclusion of environmental protection in school courses and less use of non-recyclable items like plastic bags, lunch boxes and chopsticks.

Some 13.8% of the participants stressed the importance of children's rights to education, especially those in undeveloped areas. Statistics show that over 30 million children from six to fourteen face difficulties in getting an education.

Meanwhile, urban children are calling for high-quality education and homework relief, saying that though schools have eased their burden, parents reload them.

Some 13.2% of the participants stressed the importance of caring for children's minds. Many children said that their time was strictly controlled by parents', with "not even a minute" to themselves.

"According to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which took effect in China in 1992, children under 18 enjoy 54 different rights, like the right to speak, to be entertained, and to develop. However, most Chinese are not familiar with children's rights," said Duan Zhen, researcher with the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and also an expert on children.

"It is not that children say nothing, but that adults fail to hear" is the view expressed by many grown-ups and children during this campaign.

Questions?Comments? Click here

China to Carry on Efforts for a Better World for Children

China Has 400,000 to 500,000 Children Suffering from Autism

Know Who to Love, Who to Hate ( 13 Messages)

China Expresses Strong Dissatisfaction over Japanese PM's Shrine Visit ( 47 Messages)

China's Economy to Grow Above Six Percent ( 51 Messages)

China to Open up US$1.5 Trillion Trade Market in Five Years: Vice President ( 3 Messages)

Protests Prompt Retailer to Pull T-shirts Mocking Chinese-Americans ( 105 Messages)