Today is Youth Day, a public holiday here in South Africa in which we remember the senseless slaughter of over 100 children and the thousand plus who were injured in Soweto by the apartheid regime as the kids protested against the then new law forcing them to be taught in Afrikaans rather than their own indigenous languages.
Sadly this day is barely acknowledged in the Western world and the first time we heard of it was in 1998 when we were in Tanzania, where today is celebrated as the International Day Of The African Child. Personally I prefer this more internationally minded celebration of the day, it feels more positive and more outward looking.
One of the great privileges of our time in Tanzania was getting to know Kuleana and the guys behind the organisation, which back then ran a shelter for street kids as well as leading advocacy work across the country educating people about the rights and needs of children.
It breaks our hearts to see how so many children in communities like Firgrove, Macassar and Chris Nissen Park don't care for school and their education when the children in Soweto fought so hard for their rights to an education.
We have blogged before about this: International Day Of The African Child & Toad Slobber
This is interesting because it is celebrated
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