Reaching out to help children with disabilities in Lagos

By Omoyele Isaac Success, an A World at School Global Youth Ambassador from Nigeria

The world celebrated Universal Children’s Day on November 20 to spread international awareness of children’s rights.
 
Every year it marks the day on which the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1959 and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN CRC) in 1989.

This year’s theme centred on “promoting children’s welfare and children’s rights”.

According to the World Report on Disability, one billion people in the world are living with a disability, with at least one in 10 being children and 80% living in developing countries.

Children with disabilities are one of the most marginalised and excluded groups, remaining invisible to the mainstream population and education officials.

To this end, a team of A World at School Global Youth Ambassadors in Lagos, Nigeria, commemorated the day by reaching out to vulnerable and marginalised children in Ajegunle Lagos.

Many of them have various forms of disabilities including hearing impairment, speech disorder and Down Syndrome. The team of GYAs consisted of me, Chaste Inegbedion, Uchechukwu O. Arinze and Eniola Olowu.

I believe education is one of the most effective ways to break the cycle of discrimination and poverty that children with disabilities and their families often face. 

Our essence of teaming up to reach out to this particular set of children is to promote self-esteem, teach them that they have rights as children and that they are loved just the way they are.

This is why the children are given basic education materials to further equip them to be educated.

Chaste Inegbedion said: “We want to ensure that their basic human rights, including the right to education, are upheld.” Uchechukwu Arinze said: “This is because children deserve the attention, care and support for balanced lives.”

Children are the future. They are central to the success of every nation.

Children could be gifted, talented, skilled, out-of-school, orphaned, vulnerable or disabled, white or black, but they should be treated equally and accorded their fundamental human rights.

It is for this reason GYAs in Lagos have taken a stand to ensure the voice of every Nigerian child is heard.

Follow Isaac on Twitter.