Save the Children gives children the opportunity to make an impact

The city of Mariehamn has made the decision to renovate the park Wirénska Parken, located by the town square in Mariehamn. With the help of the Save the Children association they wanted to make sure that those who use the park and its playground are involved in the project. Therefore, Save the Children arranged a Park day to give children an opportunity to affect how the park will be reconstructed.

Save the Children fights for children’s rights worldwide. According to UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child every child has the right to express their wishes in all matters affecting them. Therefore, Save the Children organised a Park day to let the children share how they wanted the park to be developed in the future.

Save the Children wanted to be able to gather the children’s opinions in a safe and child-friendly way. This was done by arranging different types of activities, the children were able to play games, go on a quiz walk and draw. In addition to this, Save the Children also interviewed some of the children.

“We are very satisfied with how the event turned out. We thought it went great and are happy to see that so many people decided to participate. We have recieved a lot of good ideas from the children, which we will forward to the city of Mariehamn,” says Child Rights Coordinator Jonna Varsa.

Arranged by young people, for young people

The summer workers for the Save the Children association had the main responsibility of the Park day. Together with representatives from the city of Mariehamn they came up with the idea of arranging a fun event for the whole family to find out children’s ideas and opinions, but also adult’s. Together with their supervisors they planned and carried out the event. The summer workers spend their summer working with children’s and young people’s rights on Åland.

“The purpose of the summer job is to let young people work with spreading information and encouraging their rights. Children and teenagers have a unique perspective on how it is to be a child today and what needs to be considered while planning activities for other children. Us adults learn so much when we give young people the opportunity to be involved and make an impact,” says Jonna Varsa.

Save the Children is one of the organisations that founded Paf in 1966. The organisation receives annual support in the form of Paf funds from Paf, which helps them run the association.