Solidarity, a word that might be too complicated for children. But don’t be too sure, they know very well what solidarity signifies and what it can bring to their lives.
“Solidarity is helping others voluntarily.” Nelle and Lisa, aged 8 and 9 years.
“It’s to please without asking for anything in exchange.” Maxence, 9 years.
“It’s helping others to make them happy as well as yourself and in this way, you are doing good.” Adrien and Antoine, 8 ½ years.
“It’s helping one another to move forward.” Louna, 8 ½ years.
The words of these children illustrate the awareness and importance they hold about the necessity of solidarity and good deeds. It seems natural for them to be unified with each other, even when thousands of miles separate them. Thus unified initiatives exist between children from different backgrounds and countries, the most represented being the Tapori (the name of street children in India).
The group constitutes children from 52 different countries, joined by exchanges between shared projects through a common worldwide friendship and understanding. Directed towards education and everyday life projects such as these permit the children to discover other ways of living and teaches them to respect and help others.
Children in Africa are going to record a song, create and draw a calendar that they will then send to children in a French school who in return –will send books. The groups also collaborate on a global project like the writing of a book about a specific theme to which every child contributes. School children in Geneva have collected donations to help facilitate the implementation of the project in other countries as well.
These examples demonstrate that solidarity is not exclusive to adults. These children who do not hesitate to initiate progress should more often be viewed as role models by the older generation.
