Winners International Children’s Peace Prize 2005 - 2009

Nkosi Johnson, 2005

The first Children’s Peace Prize in 2005 was dedicate d posthumously to Nkosi Johnson for his work and dedication to offer a more dignified existence to South African children and their mothers with HIV and AIDS. The Prize was offered by the hands of Laureate to Nkosi’s foster mother Gail Johnson and his little foster brother Thabo.

During his lifetime Nkosi rose awareness for children with HIV and AIDS. In his famous speech during the 13 th International AIDS conferenc e in Durban in 2000 he asked the world to ac cept and love children and adults with HIV/AIDS just like an y other human being. He said: “We can walk, we can talk, we have needs just like everyone else - don't be afraid of us - we are all the same!” . Nkosi wanted to open several Nkosi’s Havens together with his foster “mommy” Gail Johnson within the year. The thought behind Nkosi’s haven is that mothers and their children with HIV/AIDS (diagnosed in one or both) should not be separated from each other. The money from the International Children’s Peace P rize was donated to Nkosi’s haven, which is still developing with the support of KidsRights.

Om Prakash Gurjar, 2006

In 2006 Om Prakash Gurjar from India won the International Children’s Peace Prize . He received the Prize from Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mr. F.W. de Klerk , former president of South Africa. He was awarded the Prize for his unceasing work to combat child labor and liberate child slaves in India. Om was liberated from slavery after having worked from his 5th until his 8 th year under grueling circumstances. After his liberation Om started advocating and fighting for children’s rights to freedom and education.

After having received the International Children’s Peace Prize Om was invited by several highly influential people like the Vice-President of India and Prime Minister of Great Britain, Gordon Brown, (then Minister of Finance).

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Om has helped over 500 children get registration papers which entitles them to free education.

Currently Om is currently living on his own. He is still in contact with his parents but does not see them very often. Om has finished high school and is setting up his own business in cooperation with BBA.

Thandiwe Chama, 2007

In 2007, KidsRights had the honor of giving the International Children’s Peace Prize to Thandiwe Chama from Zambia. She received the Children’s Peace Prize from Laureate Betty Williams and Sir Bob Geldof, for her devotion to the rights of children in her country, especially their right to education.

Thandiwe’s school was closed when she was only 8 years old because of a lack of teachers. But Thandiwe did not accept this and demanded education for her and her 60 Fotograaf: Dennis Brussaard schoolmates. The CECUP school took them in. After having seen the extent to which she could influence her environment Thandiwe went to a government official to plead for a new building, so that the children did not have to study outside in the hot sun anymore. Ever since, Thandiwe has been fighting for the right to education for all children, including the poor and the ill. Thandiwe has seen the devastating effects of HIV/Aids in her direct environment. Children dying of the disease, children not going to school. and lacking the right nutrition. Taking action on behalf of children with HIV/Aids and calling upon others to do their share is one of her great drives in daily life. She gets the community involved to provide fruits to sick children in the nearby hospital. She advises children and parents on testing for HIV, and has even taken children herself to do the test.

Thandiwe is now in boarding school to finish her high school because her old school did not provide a high enough level of education to proceed onto college or university. Now, at boarding school, she has enough space and opportunity to devote herself to her education and she is doing very well. She attends many extracurricular activities and tutors other children on the weekends.

In 2009 Thandiwe attended a UN top together with Mayra, the 2008 winner of the International Children’s Peace Prize. There she addressed several ministers from different countries about violence against girls after which she met people like Mrs. Hillary Clinton and Mrs. Marta Santos Pais. This was a very special and impressive experience for Thandiwe.

In 2010 Thandiwe took part in a Dance4Life event in Zambia to create awareness in schools about hiv/aids and give attention to people have the disease.

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Mayra Avellar Neves, 2008

In 2008 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate gave Mayra Avellar Neves the Children’s Peace Prize for her ongoing fight against the violence in the favela’s in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and her own favela Vila Cruzeiro in particular. When Mayra was only 11 years old her favela was closed off by so many checkpoints that schools and clinics had to be closed because doctors and teachers could not reach them. She however refused to accept this and found another school outside the favela and demanded her right to education. Fotograaf: Dre Urhahn

When Mayra was 15 years old, she mobilized hundreds of youths to participate in a community march against violence. Their direct demand was that the police should stop patrolling around schools during the times that children walk to and from school. This took great courage, as the march passed by many of these armed police patrols. As a result of this action, the police agreed to the demands, and children started coming back to school again – a great achievement with far-reaching implications for life in the favela.

When she was 16, Mayra organised a ‘Walk for Peace’ to make Brazilian society aware of the social exclusion of children from Vila Cruzeiro, and to protest against the extreme violence in the favela. More than 300 youths from the slum participated. The march was aimed both at changing the minds of those outside the favela’s, and at making the favela inhabitants aware that change will only come if they demand it.

Meanwhile, Mayra continues to organise regular meetings attracting hundreds of favela youths, focusing on how to change the situation in Vila Cruzeiro so that they will be able to grow up in safety and with good education. In addition, Mayra participates in the theatre group Favela Força (“ favela power” ), which shows the powerful and positive culture of the favela population. Also, Mayra is now university studying to pursue her dream of working in a museum and research the history of Brazil and Africa.

Despite the opportunities that Mayra has after receiving the International Children’s Peace Prize, she chooses to stay in the favela because she believes that life there can be changed and the favela can become a better world, if only people want it enough.

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Baruani Eustache Ndume, 2009

Baruani has lived in the refugee camp in Tanzania for over nine years. He tries to convert this life experience into positive action, by actively helping fellow refugee children. His radio show is one of the key ways in which he tries to help his peers. The radio show, called ‘Sisi kwa Sisi’ (Children for Children), airs

on Radio Kwizera in Tanzania, Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi. In his radio show, Baruani discusses the problems and challenges refugee children face in the camp. For many children it is already a big help to talk to someone and to be able to share the problems they experience. Baruani also leads a children’s parliament in the camp which is also a child voicing out tool.

Furthermore, through his radio show Baruani contributes to Fotograaf: Roy Beusker reuniting children with their parents. The children use the radio show to call upon people familiar with them or their family.

After having received the prize December 2009, Baruani returned to the refugee camp to continue his school. And he is actively learning English, progressing very rapidly, and is now able to converse in English without a translator. He is still very active with the youth in the refugee camp. He has set up two different soccer teams, one for boys and one for girls. They received outfits and soccer balls out of sponsorship and are doing very well.

Also, an income generating project has been set up in cooperation with Baruani’s family and World Vision Tanzania. Baruani’s wish was to build a video hall where the camp community could watch documentaries, soccer games and educational films. The project is running very well, generating money that enable the family to increase their living standard and help others as well.

As far as the prize money is concerned, this will be spent on a project or multiple projects related to Baruani’s field of interest.

Francia Simon, 2010

As Francia, 16 years old, was born in the Bateyes of Haitian parents, she initially had no rights either. Her family, like all others, was stateless. Francia has had to fight hard to improve her own living conditions. It was impossible for her to go to secondary school because she did not have the right papers. She did not resign herself to that and investigated her rights and how she could secure them in all kinds of ways. With a positive outcome – she is now registered and attends secondary school.

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Based on this success and with the knowledge she had gained, Francia dedicate herself to the rights of other children in similar situations, always continuously appealing to the Right of children to Name and Nationality (Article 7.1 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child). She now informs parents and children about every child’s right to be registered, after which the child and his or her name are officially recognised and a nationality is acquired. Francia actively supports parents and children during this complex legal process. She sees to it that registration ultimately gets done, drawing on all her powers of persuasion to hold municipalities accountable towards the community and their residents. In this way, Francia has already helped more than 130 children to get birth certificates. She would like to expand her activities and help to the stateless children in other communities. After all, every child deserves a name and a nationality, so he or she can build self-respect and increase the chance to live life to its full potential.

Francia also helps children who have fled Haiti after the earthquakes of early 2010, often without parents, to find shelter when they arrive. Together with other young people, Francia organizes sports and games for these children. She wants to give them a distraction as they process the psychological damage inflicted on them.

After returning to the Dominican Republic Francia did several interviews over the phone with international papers and radio programmes. There was also a lot of national attention generated on the subject of immigrants acquiring birth certificates.

Francia is currently attending high school, where she does very well. She lives in a community not very close to school which makes it harder to attend school every day. But this is one of the points to be addressed in the project set up with the prize money.

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July 2010 Thandiwe, Mayra and Baruani attended the KidsRights MDGs Conference in Johannesburg. They all gave impressive speeches in front of people like Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former President F.W. de Klerk and Mrs. Graça Machel. The winners took a look in Soweto and visited the Hector Pieterson museum. Thandiwe and Baruani visited the Nkosi’s Haven village and heard from Nkosi’s mother the story of his life and what he fought for. They found it to be a very exciting trip from which they learned a lot. But during their time in Johannesburg they of course also had a great time together.

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