Celebrating children

I wanted to talk to you today about a great event that we had yesterday which was Queen Birthday Party for children. It’s an idea that I had in March when I was finishing my Russian lesson. And at the school where I learned Russian at the weekend they mostly teach English to children here, but they also teach Russian to adults like me. So I had this idea over a cup of coffee that it would be great to celebrate the Queen’s 90th birthday with children as well. And the director of the Mulberry Club who was our partner in this event yesterday was very enthusiastic. From an idea over a cup of coffee it grew legs, and yesterday we had several hundred children playing in the sunshine with food and drinks, and entertainment, and lots of laughter. And it was really inspiring to see.

We rented a restaurant just on the outskirts of town with a large garden, so plenty of area for the children to run around. We had children from different backgrounds. There were children who come from, I suppose you can say, more affluent families and there were children from children’s homes, and there were children also with disabilities. It was great to see all children mixing happily together. That was one of the main goals for us to bring all those children together. We’d love to have done it for even more but we were restricted to numbers a little bit. But anyway we had a good mix yesterday. What was really amazing for me was one of the entertainments provided, the stage. There was one group of children who did a fashion show on the stage, and there was another group who did some singing and dancing, and there was one young guy who sang a solo. The talent of these young children was absolutely amazing and had me enthralled watching the stage yesterday afternoon, really-really good.

There were various journalists at the event as well. They asked me and my colleague Rashed from UNICEF, who was another sponsor of the event, why we were doing this. We replied, you know, well, partly to celebrate the Queen’s birthday but also because 1 June is the International Children’s Day and how it’s really important to celebrate children. For me, I explained, children are the future of a country and it’s really important to nurture and support children, and particularly children from more disadvantaged backgrounds. That is why we wanted very much to include children from children’s homes. I hope that the message was clearly understood and delivered that any country would only be successful economically, culturally and in all other ways if the next generation are prepared, educated, have confidence. And that’s why it is so important to give children now, I’m in Belarus, so we’re talking about children here, but it’s equally important all over the world.

I was asked about the situation with children in the UK and I quoted a number of examples. In London, there is a wonderful Science Museum. Our museums are very interactive, they are really geared to children, so that children have a fantastic and pleasurable experience when they go to a museum. There are whole routes in the museums that are planned for children with quizzes and things to make children interested in what they are seeing. So I was telling the journalists about that.

Another question I was asked was about TV-programming for children and the fact that there isn’t really much this TV-programming in Belarus. I said it was a great pity, I didn’t know that. I remember TV-programming when I was a child and looked forward to particular days of the week when my favourite programmes were coming up. For example, we had a programme called News Round which was young people going and interviewing and covering stories, and then it was all put together into a 20-minute programme called News Round.

That got me to talk into a few people yesterday about what a great idea it would be if TV here would invite young people, give them a camera, give them some training and go and invite them to do some programming around young people’s issues, around current affairs, etc. and give them a 1-hour slot, say, once a week to broadcast a programme that they had put together. That would be really interesting. And I know it’s something that’s been done in other countries. In fact, in the UK it does happen as well. I think it’s London Live, I can’t remember the channel. It’s very geared to London news, and it’s a youth channel who are covering the stories, who are doing the presenting in the news room and in the studio. So that’s possibly something that might be of interest to the news channels here or TV channels in general.

Anyway, I was very inspired by yesterday. There are so many wonderful young people out there, and I just saw a tiny proportion. I would love to be able to do what we did yesterday around the rest of the country. Perhaps, it’s quite ambitious and my team would probably say “Oh no, it’s too lot of work!”. But I think the work is worth when you see all those wonderful smiles. And I’m very grateful to all the people who volunteered to help make yesterday a success.

But as I said it’s very important to nurture young people and to remember that there are many young people all over the world, and in Belarus as well it’s not different, who are suffering, who are disadvantaged, they are from broken homes, there may be violence in the family, drugs, alcohol abuse, parents who are not interested in their upbringing. And those children really need love, and care, and support from the community. I hope in my very small way over the next few years I can do what I can, give my support for projects that, for example, UNICEF are undertaking. If the UK can anyway support, I would be very happy to do that. And indeed, of course, the government of Belarus as well, and the people of Belarus and the initiatives that are going on. I’m sure if I could support them in any way I will. I might need to clone myself to be in different places at different times, but I think it’s really important. So, I hope that’s my main message for today. Thank you.

See the video version of this blog here.