Day of the African Child

WESTWOOD CELEBRATES ‘THE DAY OF THE AFRICAN CHILD’ – JUNE 16

On June 16th Westwood students prepared a special assembly to commemorate ‘The Day of the African Child’. The assembly was filled with musical items, poetry and dance – in celebration of the creativity, energy and talents of Westwood children and to acknowledge the plight of other children in Africa who are less fortunate. In Botswana, the 2011 theme for this day is, ‘All Together in Favour of Action for Street Kids’. We watched a slide show, prepared by Stanley Smith in Year 13 that reminded us of the history and significance of this day. We were entertained by students in Year One dancing, Reba (Year8) and Reabetswe (Year 4) playing the piano, Neila (Year 13) singing, Aleksa (Year 13) on guitar and Thabang (Year 13)who wrote and performed a rap piece. Gorata and Stuart (Year 13) also read poems that they had written themselves.

Year 4 students shared a recital about the ‘United Nations Millenium Development Goals’ and Year 7 students gave us a presentation about the ‘United Nations Convention on the Rights of Child’. Year 2 students also shared with us their own dreams and hope for the future.

Here is the poem written by Gorata Chengeta in Year 13 in commemoration of this day:

In the harsh heat of Africa
where very few plants can grow
the children define resilience
with their unending desire to know

Our hearts beat a drum
to the tune of survival
and as we fight against statistics
We stage hope's revival.

We are grass that suffers
whenever elephants fight
and we cannot prevail
unless we can all unite.

We are warriors defending the future -
We won’t stop til there is change.
Taking away our education
is like robbing crops of rain.

Don’t deny the plants their sunlight
or the doves their time to reign.
We will fight for our learning
until every dove has been unchained

Lift us up to new heights
and before your eyes, we will prosper.
Don’t deny us this:
our most basic right

We are yours to foster

Gorata Chengeta
Year 13